On the Wings of an Eagle
by Kaeru Shisho
Summary: Sequel to For a Lark-- Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking
1. Been a Long Time on the Run

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter One-**

**Been a Long Time on the Run**

* * *

"Who was that?" Duo asked me as he tottered out of the bathroom, naked as a jaybird.

"God, Duo," I said, "put on some clothes."

"Do Gods need clothes, I ask myself? Heh, heh. I thought you liked me starkers."

_More than anything_. "Not when we are _already_ late for our appointment."

He waggled his butt and grinned at me. "We got time. It's not the low-grav gym, remember? We got plenty of time."

"Not for my last meeting with my doctor."

"Is that today?" His eyes were wide with surprise, so wide I could see a bit of white at the edges. They looked huge and that strange blue-violet set off by his pale skin, which disappeared under a t-shirt. "Sorry! How could I forget that?"

"You've been helping me fill out college applications," I said, enveloping his lithe body in a hug, "and keeping me occupied in bed."

"That would explain why you woulda forgot!"

_Yeah, it would. _ He could make me forget my own name, which wasn't mine in the first place. This appointment was important enough to remember, though; I'd get my final "walking papers," so to speak, giving me clearance for a return to work. I wasn't going back to the circus, though. I was starting fresh, thanks to Duo Maxwell.

I couldn't believe it either. Duo had become the lover to Trowa Barton—me, the lucky bastard. Half the time I was living someone else's life, but the other half I was living my fucking dream.

He laughed and jammed on a baseball cap pulled low to disguise his features. "I'm ready!"

I leaped over a pair of shoes left right in the path to the door. I felt good to be able to do that again. I wasn't even annoyed with him for leaving his crap in the way, because the place looked well lived in now and he cooked for me and I was a total idiot in love with him.

We split the apartment and headed for the cross-tram. He was completely tactile. I'd never seen him that way or been with anyone like that, but it was damned cool. He held my hand on the ride to the hospital building then traded up to an arm over my shoulders, settling finally with it around my waist by the time we were walking up to the hospital building.

He liked to have me in contact with him; that's what he said. At no time was it a possessive move. I didn't feel like he was signaling to others "hands off," and I certainly never thought of him as "mine." Could Duo ever be "mine" solely? I was "his" for as long as he wanted, but Duo was like this free spirit in the stratosphere high above me.

I think he wore me like a firearm—Heavyarms at his beck and call. I loved that feeling, being a part of his armament against the rest of the world. Better than being the circus monkey to the clown. Yeah, my life had had its bad spots-- all part of life's rich pageant and all.

"Floor?"

"Nine."

"Yeah, that's it." He smiled at me and punched the elevator button. "Nine, like Noin, which reminds me of Zechs, whose last email was months ago. He was coming back-- permanently this time-- from the Mars satellite project, which was my point."

What point, I almost asked, but traded that question for one in greater need of answering. "You exchange email with Zechs Merquise?" After the news I'd received via vid-phone this morning, nothing should be left to surprise me, just shock me. I reminded myself to keep quiet on that subject as Duo had apparently forgotten about the call.

"No, but Quat does and that's what he told me."

"You talked to Quatre?" _I_ had but I hadn't known that _he_ had. "When did you talk to him?"

"Right after I got that call from Wufei and the one from Heero. Not so strange, really, when you think about it. They're all just checking up on us to keep tabs on their experiment."

I laughed at his choice of words. Getting Duo and me together had taken more than just basic biology and chemistry. Our mutual friends had masterminded a series of events starting with broken business affairs, shuttles redirected to remote satellites, and basically utilizing lies and luck. And it all worked out. Once I had my health clearance, I would qualify for work study programs at whatever college accepted me. That plus my veteran's benefits made me practically independent. Duo insisted on picking up the rest. We'd live together where ever we ended up, he'd get a job, we'd have each other, and be happy. That's what he said.

In my mind I'd sometimes tag on a "forever and ever," like some romantic idiot.

"Trowa Barton?"

"You don't have to come," I told him as he stood right along with me as he always did. I think he was afraid I'd run out, now that I could run. "I'm okay with the doc, you know."

"Yeah, I know." And he just grinned. I loved his face when it exploded with happiness like that. My heart just swelled, soaking up all that sunshine. "I'm here for my lollipop."

Yes, the doctor always gave us each a sucker for "being good."

"So, what are your plans?" the doctor asked after signing my work clearance papers. "I don't mean to pry, but I'd hate to feed some of my best handiwork to the lions again."

I didn't even flinch this time at the joke. "No chance of that. I'm going to college. My circus days are over."

"From the circus to the zoo!" She thought that was funny. So did Duo. "I recommend that wherever you go that you continue with the exercises. Keeping those new muscles limber and well stretched will be the key to your continued progress."

"No problem there," Duo snickered.

"You'll keep an eye on my patient?" the good doctor asked him.

"Absolutely! Someone's got to see that he eats and _ex-er-sizes_." His expression was downright lascivious as he drew out the last word.

My doctor chose it ignore him like I couldn't.

"And you returned the walker… All right then you're all set to go. Good luck, Mr. Barton. If you are ever this way again, stop by and visit. What's that?"

Duo was practically tugging at her sleeve.

"He wants a sucker," I told her.

I thought she'd scoff at his foolishness, but she didn't. She laughed and pulled from her lab coat pockets two curious-looking sweets on sticks. "When I spotted these, I knew I had to buy them. Do you know what they are?"

"No." I thought there was something familiar about the placement of the colors, but it was Duo who connected the dots first.

"Deathscythe! Tro', look, yours is Heavyarms! Get a load of that; they made candy Gundams."

"There's an entire set," she said, "if you want—"

"Yeah! These are so cool." Duo was elated.

She bought an entire box full. Duo picked out each different one, naming them as he went along, and putting them back. I thanked her so she could get to her next patient and gathered my papers. Duo carried the box of candy.

"These will be perfect to take with us," he said.

From the sly-eyed looked he was giving me I had an uneasy feeling he didn't mean out the door and back to the apartment either. I just received Quatre's invitation this morning and we hadn't talked about going, so why was I feeling sick all of the sudden?

"Uh--," I grunted.

"To Quatre's. You got an invite, right? Sounds interesting and it takes us Earthside like we planned. We can have our crates-o-crap stored and take a little vacation while we wait for an answer back from the schools. It's perfect, really. You want to thank our "network" buddies in person, don't you?"

No. "Um--," I grunted.

The first thing that entered my mind when I read the invitation was seeing Duo greet Heero. I knew a few details more than he did, coming from Catherine, an impeccable source, and guaranteed "top secret". This party was likely to be Heero's big coming out to all of us. Once Duo saw Heero as gay-Heero and gay-Heero saw hot-confident-gay-Duo, I knew that would be the last of me.

And then I felt an arm snake over my shoulders. "Come on, Tro'," Duo said. "Let me show you off."

What could I say to that? I couldn't deny him anything, even the opportunity to meet the love of his life and leave me. "Okay."

"You weren't trying to keep that all a secret from me, were you?" He bumped hips. "Aw shucks, you were, weren't you? Gonna surprise me, huh? Think I didn't get invited, too?" He leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth. "Trying to save my feelings, huh? You are the best, Tro'. You really are. C'mon! Let's get some lunch and start packing. I've got a good feeling about all this."

It wasn't the first or last time he and I weren't on the same page.


	2. Sometimes It’s Just Too Much to Bear

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Two—**

**Sometimes It's Just Too Much to Bear**

* * *

Our belongings, clothes and kitchen things had been sent ahead for storage. The couch and other non-crate-able things we left for the management to dispose of or use to offer up the apartment as "furnished." I didn't care what they did with any of it, except for the bed Duo and I bought the last month we lived on the satellite. It was a crazy thing for us to do, but we fell in love with this one made out of real Sanc Red Oak and I bought it just like that. Insane of me, knowing we'd be leaving the place and it soon.

That bed held some mystical significance to me but mostly it held a lot of weight, making the cost of sending it to Earth astronomical—I now know where that word comes from.

I had Duo and that's all I needed, seriously. I told him that, repeatedly.

However, Duo never had held on to much to call his own, and that bed meant a lot to him, too. So I let him disassemble it and have it carted to the shuttle station, where it traveled with us in storage at the cost of twelve new ones. Renting a shuttle meant we paid for the fuel and every pound of weight we carried took more fuel to get us to Earth. It was his money, he said, to waste on sentimentality.

But that's not all he did for me.

Duo let me rent the class B shuttle and do the piloting to Earth. He took over the controls to give me a break, but mostly it was my honor, saying I was the best. He made me feel like the best sometimes. While I was flying, he'd talk and I'd catch him looking me over, looking at me like I was the only man in the universe for him. Of course, in a way I was the only one near him at the time, but just the same…

"You're staring at me," I remarked.

"Yeah, I am. Best view in the universe. See, you part your hair on this side leaving a triangle of space which, if I sit at just the right angle, allows me to see your profile and eyes at times."

I just shook my head. "Lot of trouble for a peek at me."

"Nothing like the trouble I'd go through for a piece of your ass, and I ain't clownin' around."

"This you tell me when I have twelve hours of flying ahead of me?"

Duo just shrugged, unimpressed. "You can do both. I've seen you read a book and fly, fight off an OZ assault and fly, sleep and fly—"

"Hey," I stopped him. "I never fell asleep at the controls." I hadn't!

"I know, I know." He dumped his butt on my lap, facing me, blocking my view of the controls pretty effectively, and then scooted up so our crotches met. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around my neck and looked my eye in the eye. "You won't sleep through this, either."

"Up yours," I said with a grin.

"By your leave," he said.

He knew what he was doing when he punched in the autopilot. And, I didn't complain as he stripped, first himself then me all while I kept an eye on the incoming signals and with us stacked there in the pilot's seat, my legs strategically placed stretched out all over the controls. He took care of the hard work, stretching himself, getting seated, leaving me to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I passed a hand through my hair, pushing the bangs aside so I could get an uninterrupted view of my lover, the sexiest man alive, bar none. The sex Gods had an offspring out of wedlock, him, and his thick, sticky, glistening come was spread all over me.

Oh, yeah.

I loved Duo Maxwell inside and out.

I landed the plane hours after my mind touched ground again, and we found a taxi to carry us out to Winner's estate minutes later, not too difficult since it meant a sure tip. And he got one from us, but probably not as big as he expected.

Maguanacs manned the gates, the security booth, the inside gates, the approach to the door, the entry and the walk from the door to the wide decked retreat in one of the gardens. And there Duo and I were greeted, finally, by Winner himself. And his new main squeeze, Agent Wind, the Silver Zephyr, The Lightening Count, The Ice Prince (give me a drum roll), Zechs Merquise. Money and breeding meets money, breeding, _and_ titles.

Duo and Quatre I knew had lots to talk about so I slid into a shadowy chair and prepared to be entertained by a prince I'd rather see lying in a puddle of blood; his.

Instead, Duo, after giving his friend a hug and kiss, said, "Hey, I gotta find a john in this gypsy camp. Watch my man for me, okay?" He winked at me, saluted Merquise, not bowed, and took off for interiors parts unknown, to me anyway.

"I went at the station," I explained when both Winner and Merquise looked at me.


	3. I Hide Behind My Eyes

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Three**—

**I Hide Behind My Eyes**

* * *

"So," I asked the smiling, rather shy pair. "How did you meet?"

"Over work, as usual," Winner summarized succinctly. "We're taking a break, attending a party, before we embark on a terraforming experiment on one of the company's satellites."

"My dear," Merquise cut in. "He doesn't want to hear about that. Let me tell."

Without argument, Winner waved him on. "I'll keep him honest," he whispered to me.

"My terraforming job on Mars was over and so was my affair with Lucrezia Noin. I could leave them both behind, start yet another life over. Sadly, I had run out of places for rebirthing; that is, until I received two totally coincidental vid calls. First, my half-sister having heard of the project's completion invited me to Earth for a visit. The second, and, frankly, the most intriguing, was from the head of the Winner Corporation wishing to discuss a project requiring my particular skills."

"I never called you," Winner corrected. "Grace, my secretary did. Don't make things up."

The two exchanged painfully adoring smiles. God, I hoped Duo and I hadn't sapped it up like that in our first months. I was glad we'd been isolated from everyone we cared about during our infatuation phase.

"I don't need to. Our meeting was epic. I caught the scent of him as he walked past. What happened next was an impulsive move, quite out of character for me. I trotted through the throngs of diplomats and party-goers, oddly compelled by a need to see his face.

"_Pardon me," he said. "Could you tell me the way to the men's room?_

"I used my friendliest tone. But then he smiled his smile, the smile that bloomed like wonder itself. It was as simple and elegant as that. It rendered me speechless. Before he uttered a word, I was already consumed with a singular desire, a wanton need, to win this man for myself.

"That's not quite the way that went," Winner said. "You already spoke two complete sentences to me before I got a word in edgewise."

They shared another pretty smile after which Merquise said, "_I'm going that way myself,_ he said."

"The men's room was not where I wanted to begin my courtship dance, but with no way to extract myself from my fib, I simply fell in line behind him. That's when I noticed the droop of his shoulders and handkerchief in his hand. A man in pain could only mean one thing, a broken romance. Having suffered through my own lately, I felt my timing was the worst. What this man needed was a shoulder to cry on, not a new amour.

"You were right about the end of a romance part, except that I wasn't weepy, I was having a reaction to the shrimp. It irritates my eyes of all things." Quarter fluttered his eyelashes and made a face at his own goofiness.

"That's what you say now," Merquise smiled with an indulgence I found pathetic bordering on hysterically funny. "I tided up quickly, and then left without more than a pleasant adieu. As disappointed as I felt, I had the presence of mind to find Relena and thank her for the lovely evening before leaving. She, however, was also distressed."

"Not so much at all. She was the one giving me the ultimatum," Winner said.

"_I'll be fine. I'm sorry to be such poor company, and after you came so far to see me_, she said.

"_Nonsense. It is I who should apologize to you for cluttering your life now."_

She would have none of that and, instead, dragged me away to spill her story. She had just broken off her six month relationship with her boyfriend after he confessed to having no sexual interest in her."

"You'd think after the second date she would have dismissed me. I told her I wasn't a ladies' man from the start, but she seemed satisfied that dating me would keep the unwanted suitors at bay." Winner shook his head and smiled crookedly. "I also kept the desirable ones away and so it was time to dump me."

"_What a fool she was, but I'd grateful,' Zechs said with plenty of meaning. "All the cute blonde boys are gay_, she declared. _Why do they wait so long to come clean?_

"_We repress what we know is unpopular, I told her. We want to fit in like everyone else. I only just acknowledged that I was gay all my life, after the cost of eternal denial became too high._

"My admission came as a complete surprise to her, and after the usual questions (are you sure?) and assertions (you haven't found the right girl.) There was no right girl, but I thought I'd found the right boy at her party."

And I swear, the little corporate blond giggled at that. What was keeping Duo, I wondered? He'd know how to hustle this story along.

"_Your…ex… wasn't wearing grey Armani with a pink tie, was he? _I asked Relena.

"_Coral. The tie was coral. Yes, that was him. Do you know Cat?_

"Cat? What kind of name was that for a man, I wondered? Aloud I said,_ No, I may have run into him a few minutes ago._

"She must not have been too in love with this Cat, because she wasn't suffering the rest of my stay in her home. Thankfully, my one week visit came to a close with us remaining family-close. She appealed to me to return after my business trip was concluded, and I let her coax me into saying yes, with a caveat. I had no idea if the job offer would pan out, and, if it did, where it might take me. I told her I would let her know. If possible, though, I would drop in on Relena again soon."

"Have you?" I asked him.

"I've called," Merquise answered. "She's doing well, new beau and all."

"How soon they forget," Winner mused.

To speed things along, I probed a bit. "Did you meet Winner again on your business trip then?"

"Oh, yes. You can imagine the shock I went through as I admired the photographs in the Winner Corporation waiting room. "Cat" was Quatre Raberba Winner. Not only was he the head of the multi-national, intergalactic Winner Corps, but he had been one of the Gundam Pilots. I'd never put together that pilot, a boy I'd never met, with the man who I'd only just lusted over and with whom my half-sister, apparently, had just broken off a relationship. I had about one minute to absorb this information before his secretary called me into his office.

"_Zechs Merquise!_ He called out to me as if we'd been longtime friends. The merriment in his eyes told me he knew my every secret and that I should not bother pretending I didn't recognize him at our last meeting.

"_Mr. Winner_, I said politely shaking his hand, except I didn't let go; I couldn't let go. My hand would not release his. But then his hand clung to mine as well."

"I think your hand was coated in glue," Winner said with a malicious gleam in his eye.

"_Would you like to talk and walk? I would love to leave this office and I don't get to see the gardens I had installed at a terrible expense often enough, my sly little Cat asked. _

"Gardens were a luxury we hadn't enjoyed on Mars. _I'd love to_, I told him. I'd love to spend the rest of my day with you, and longer if you turn out to be anyway as delightful as I was thinking.

"_There's time for an early lunch. I'll order it delivered there. Any preferences? _ he asked me.

"_No._

"_I thought a military man would be flexible, he said._

"Were we still talking about food, I wondered?"

Quatre raked a hand through his neatly trimmed bangs. "I don't recall that conversation at all."

"It went something like that," Merquise assured me. "And then he freed his hand to operate his vid phone, inform his secretary of his plans, and lead me to a side door, which opened to a private elevator. We descended hundreds of floors in so little time I felt the G-force. I gripped the support bar and met his smile with a grimace of my own.

"_You like surprises_, I said to him.

"He nodded at me. _At times there aren't enough surprises left_."

Winner laughed a silvery, light laugh. "You make me sound far wittier than I am."

"Heaven forbid!" Merquise chuckled.

I was practically giddy from the bubbling merriment laying siege to me. Duo, save me! Give me your sarcasm, your irony!

"--We walked the garden, leaning close, holding hands, allowing ourselves small displays of affection, just traditional gestures of fondness, but for the first time in my life I allowed myself to revel in them.

"Bend after bend, the trail was hazy and quiet, the cascades of flowers gorgeous and lush. I admired him nestled into a cozy alcove of rocks that sheltered us from a misting."

"The overhead sprinkler system was on automatic," Winner explained. "I should have taken note of the timer's schedule by the door."

"I felt helpless that I hadn't a camera in order to capture him in all the places that needed to be preserved. The tree-lined walks seduced us away from the rocky ledges with the promise of lunch at the next turn. We stopped at a table and chairs set with our meal. A gentle breeze rippled the surface of the water feature in sight. A perfectly lovely design, by the way."

Oh, that pleased Winner, little Cat, to no end. He colored and thanked him. "I love flowers."

"I'll remember that on your birthday," Merquise said. His teeth glinted in the setting sun.

I couldn't believe how late it was getting. I looked around for any sign of Duo. Not a hair. And, sadly, I could grow no wings or I might have taken flight right then. Flown the coop. But, instead, there I was with the two loons, er, love birds.

"Despite the beauty of the surrounds, fatigue from travelling the universe settled upon me. I hoped he didn't serve me wine; I'd be lulled into a doze. I also was afraid. After lunch would be the job discussion and then I'd have to leave."

"I thought about wine but I was afraid you'd be a bigger vintage snob than your sister." Winner winked.

"Not I! We picnicked on chicken, bread, and fresh fruits and vegetables—a cornucopia of freshness I'd sorely missed on Mars. I wondered if he'd forget the intimate, nameless places where we had talked through the lazy hours. I wondered if, like me, he felt as if we had lived a whole, though tiny, life there."

GAG!

"I do remember the nice peach you sliced for me while I talked about the job."

"You told me, I remember it word for word," Merquise said in a voice getting husky with emotion. "_Your success on Mars reached my ears and I thought some of your unique solutions could solve the problems we've been having on our satellites. _

"My thoughts turned from admiring my host," they exchanged doting smiles, "to communicating with him. He impressed me with his knowledge and attention to detail."

"I don't know why," Winner said, his eyebrow going crooked, "I'd been a Gundam pilot which requires a skill set specifically attuned to both characteristics."

"I'm so sorry to have underestimated all your virtues," Merquise said. He made a big deal of kissing Quatre's finger tips. "Then you said to me:_ Can I persuade you to travel to the site with me and see the problems for yourself? _

_A paid consultant?_

_Yes_, he said, but his eyes promised more."

"Not at the time," Winner said. "I'm not slutty."

We have only your word on that one, I thought to myself.

"It was all wishful thinking in my mind," Merquise corrected himself mid slip-up.

I was kind of enjoying his kissing up to Winner, but he stopped at that. Feeling like the story was mercilessly over made me think about getting up and finding Duo.

"The trip—" Winner began.

I sank back into my chair.

"The trip passed like a dream," Merquise supplied smoothly. "Even though my personal income had dropped to near-poverty, a big part of me was still rooted within my family ancestral estate and my military regimens, in its orders and values. I was never comfortable in my own skin as much as when I was with Quatre Winner. He put me at ease. He gossiped with the workmen, laughed, talked about catching the local game on the TV, and somewhere in between, kept notes of all my suggestions. Everywhere we went, folks welcomed him like kin."

"His hundred or so sisters have produced children; maybe they _were_ his kin," I said.

"Trowa!" Winner chuckled but kicked me just the same. "There aren't that many!"

I don't know. Take twenty-eight and if each of them produced twenty-eight more, and so on; why in no time there could be a colony of Winnerkins.

"He had a natural confidence entirely different from what I'd expected. I don't know what I'd expected, really. The way he moved, how his white hands danced when he talked-- I never got tired of looking at him. I especially liked the way he smiled whenever he caught my eyes".

"I ensnared you with my charm," Winner said, absolutely delighted with himself.

"Yes, you did, and then the short trip was over. I was twenty-six and had never been with a man. I knew something about falling in love and being in love in general terms—"

I nearly pretended interest and asked him what, pray tell, love in general terms entailed? But, I didn't.

"From literature and a little dabbling in brook, so to speak," Merquise went on to add, "--, but nothing first-hand about sex with a man."

And I hoped to God that Merquise didn't start giving me a blow-by-blow description of what he'd learned since!

"After parting with Noin," Merquise held onto the moment and took off again, "I had come to the conclusion that I would never marry a woman, if you know what I'm driving at?"

I wasn't sure, but then I didn't care a rat's ass, either. He winked at me so I winked back. That settled it, I guess.

"And then suddenly, I was living a miracle. I become conscious of the fact that I had met my dearest, my soul-mate, my purrfect Kit. My insides flip-flopped about. I was desperate to hang on to him, if only to make the emotions last a little longer. I liked the way I felt when I was near him.

"So, just off the shuttle, I invited him to join me over coffee, anything to delay my departure. We sat side-by –side on a bench, huddled like conspirators over our steaming drinks. His presence made my head spin."

Mine, too, but in a different way, I was sure. I was really getting sick of the sap and, to be strictly honest, just a tiny bit jealous of the way Winner, Merquise's little Kit Kat, fell so easily, it seemed, for Merquise when he turned up his nose for me and Duo.

Did I say me?

All right, I was rather fond of the pretty blond off and on, not that I thought I had a better chance snagging his attention than Duo's, but he was sweet. He was still very cute, but I was not carrying some damned flame for him. Not with Duo, the God of Death, in my bed. Speaking of which, was that Duo at the door about to grace the outdoor with his presence? Please, make it so.

"Oh, ---"

"I said to him:_ I have enjoyed being in your company so much_, and winced at my formal-sounding speech, but I couldn't stop smiling.

"He leaned over and stole a kiss. I tasted sugary coffee on his lips. The horns and cries and sounds of busy station softened, the walls lost their edges. The world went all crumbly, and I was keen only on the pink curves of his lips, the way he blew over the cup before taking each sip, and the unbelievably delicious warmth of his thigh against mine."

"Oh… Zechs!"

The two melted into an embrace I didn't need to be a part of, and I left in search of my main squeeze. Who knew I had such a high tolerance for the merciless torture of watching Merquise and Winner fawn all over each other? It could have qualified for sadism, or, since I hadn't yet run screaming, perhaps masochism? Goddamn! Who knew I was into S&M?

Then my tolerance dipped off the scales and I had to leave. "Duo!"


	4. I Can Picture Friendly Faces

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Four—**

**I Can Picture Friendly Faces**

* * *

I met up with a rather harried-looking boyfriend a half minute later. He was half in and half out of the door to the patio and Merquise and Winner were still visible in the great beyond. Duo clung to me like a vine, blinked once over his shoulder as if to check if the devil were nipping at his heals, and then gazed up at me with his gorgeous eyes. Nice.

"Do not," Duo pleaded, "do NOT let me wander off alone again."

I had my own reasons, but, hey, "I won't," I promised.

"Wu-fei," he whispered. "He wants answers. He wants to _know_. He's like a shark." Duo looked about again and clutched me tighter. He pitched his voice lower. "But I watched those shows." He nodded, knowingly, not that _I_ knew. I hadn't a clue what he was ranting about, but it sounded to me like Chang needed lunch.

"Yeah," Duo went on, "On those nature shows, if the prey didn't move the shark wouldn't know it was there, sometimes, if there wasn't a lot of blood and guts around."

Blood _and_ guts?

"Anyway, I figured to make myself invisible-like, you know, discreet, so he could fortify his appetite elsewhere, consequently I hunkered in the bathroom-- even though he pounded and pounded_, _and screamed_, I know you're in there, Maxwell!"_

Like magic, there was an echoing call, "Maxwell!"

Duo's eyes were wide as saucers. "He's coming!"

"Did he make a move on you?" That was the only thing I could come up with that might have freaked him out so much.

"Ah!" Chang stepped outside to the patio, passing up the two lovebirds with hardly a wave, and heading directly for Duo and me. "Barton! Just the man I wanted to see."

Okay, so he wasn't on the make. I pealed Duo's arms away from the strangle-hold he had on me, but kept an arm firmly around his shoulders. "Oh?"

"You knew Yuy rather well, right?" Chang asked me, but I must have said "no" or he read my expression as "no" because he clucked his tongue at me. "Yes, you must have. You nursed the brave fool for months, bringing him from the brink of death back to the prime of health—"

Was everyone crazy here? Oh, I know what that means. When everyone seems out of their minds, the problem is with the perceiver, who in this case would be me. I had gained the love of my life, at last, and now I had lost my mind. How fucking unjust, to paraphrase the man standing before me.

"Barton! Trowa? Are you all right?"

I stopped his hand from fanning my face any longer. It was too much like a strobe effect from a mental test I'd once been given. I hated doctors and their tests. "I'm fine."

"Well, you seemed to have gone a bit blank there." Wufei chuckled without mirth. "What AM I thinking? It's Trowa Barton I'm speaking to. Shacking up with Maxwell couldn't possibly have changed you all that much."

Ah, but it had.

"You must help me," Chang said, trying a new track to get something out of me.

"Okay. What do you want to know about Yuy? I haven't seen the dude in years."

"That's what I said!" Duo agreed, cheery again.

Chang was frowning now. "So that's what you were screaming behind the door?" He gave me a "pity the fool" look, and then said, "You got close to him once. He let you inside his personal space. How?"

"Are you talking about when he nearly blew himself up? That was years ago."

Wufei hung on every word I said, which wasn't much. His lips moved, repeating his question, "How?" even though no sound came out. It jolted me into talking.

"Yuy was helpless. Until his broken bones and injuries were healed, he was pretty much a typical invalid."

"But you talked," Wufei insisted.

"Some, yeah."

"What about?"

"How the hell should I remember that? Nothing! Stuff like: 'does it hurt here?'; 'want something to eat?'—"

That all must not have been dicey enough for Chang because he waved his hands around again. When had he become so outwardly emotional? He was making cutting motions in the air, so I cut the crap. "What are you hunting for, Chang?"

"Did he never say anything about me?" he asked.

"That asshole? Why should he have? He didn't send me a thank you note either, if you're thinking he left you out of some group hug thing. My only interactions with Yuy were during the war. He never asked me jackshit about what I thought and let me get jerked around by OZ more than once when he had the means to put a stop to it, and wasn't around to save my ass when Quatre blew me to Hell and beyond. We were sometimes on the same side in the war and that's about the best I can wrap up my relationship with the infamous Heero Yuy. That what you want?"

When pushed, I could rant, not like Duo or even Chang, but I could hold my own. I must have said something to lead to Chang's consequent depression.

"Maxwell fell for both of you," Wufei sighed as he said that. "I thought you might be able to give me some insights. I was wrong. Sorry to have troubled you."

Chang had gone from buoyant to crestfallen in less than five minutes. Only Yuy could do that to a person without even being present. Did I have a problem with Yuy, you ask? Yes, he hurt Duo once and that was worse than anything else I could think of, giving me a perfectly good excuse to hold it against him forever after.

Duo, on the other hand, bounced to upbeat instantly. "I get it! You've fallen for Mr. Coldhearted Bastard!"

Wufei's face color paled ten shades lighter, making his dark eyes pop starkly off his face. He slapped his hands over my lover's mouth and fell on him, who was already all over me, pressing us both against the stucco wall of the villa. "Shh!" he hissed.

Oh. My. God.

I struggled to breathe.

Chang _liked_ Yuy and not in a platonic way—no one could just _plain_ like the jerk.

Inches from my ear, but mostly below it because Chang was several inches shorter than me now, he said, "He's coming_ here."_

"Not yet, Fei-man, so back off before you give us both a hard-on."

Leave it to Duo to find the exact words to move Chang. Now he was snarling at me. Good thing I'd had experience handling dangerous animals. Down boy.

"That's right," I put in, quickly. "I was with Merquise and Winner earlier (Shudder. Add note to self: do not play the good listener role again) and they got a call from him saying he was running late and that we should eat dinner without him." There, I did a nice thing.

"Oh." Chang Wufei crushed by his own feelings is a sad, sad thing to see.

Duo wasn't fazed by the earlier vision of Mad Dog Chang, I guessed, because he threw an amiable arm over the man's shoulders, while still retaining my waist with his other. "You've got balls, 'Fei, I gotta give you that. I learned my lesson. That guy wouldn't be less untouchable if he were surrounded by a moat filled with man-eating lawyers."

Chang simply sighed in agreement. God, he and Yuy deserved one another was the problem. Put it to music and I'da had a song to sing.

"Not lately," Chang said. "He's been quite cordial. We exchanged email. Planned to meet. Jobs interfered --."

I don't know how much longer Chang might have gone on describing his one-sided affair with Frosty Soldier, but I was tempted to just walk away. What they didn't know and I did was what Cathy had confided to me, and that was Heero's rumored conversion to type gay. As much as that information might help Chang, what would Duo think if I just offered it up now? _How long had I known? Why hadn't I told him? Didn't I trust him? _ Ugh, there loomed an ugly, twisted, alternate universe full of bad, bad questions I wanted to avoid answering badly.

Then he stopped.

"-- one thing after another, preventing our meeting, until this."

Duo cocked his head. He'd been paying attention. "So, he might want to be friends, but take it from me, that next step is more than a leap of fate, it's—"

_It's a real possibility_, my inner good guy screamed! Duo met my eyes for confirmation, which I was avoiding like STD's. "It's a dive to Hell itself, right 'Tro?"

Here's another one of those times when Duo and I weren't tracking one hundred percent. Did I say I couldn't deny Duo anything? I could side with him and avoid lying and telling the truth by saying next to nothing.

"Yuy treated you like shit for just telling it like it was."

Duo smiled and nodded. "Right. Like the man says."

I needed to keep my trap shut more.

"I remember," Chang said. "Yuy was entirely out of line at the time, but later he was remorseful and Winner made him promise to stay away from you. If he damaged one hair on your head, Winner promised to send the Maguanacs after him."

Duo dipped his head. I don't think he knew our little blond friend had done that. "Did he think 'Ro wanted me or wanted to kill me?"

"Honestly, Maxwell!" Chang said. "Yuy was not attracted to you. He did not want to BE with you. Winner was trying to protect you from Yuy's revenge for humiliating him that way."

I tried to say "Heero" and "Yuy" at the same time, got my tongue tied up with the "humiliating" part and out came, "Humiliating Heuy?!" I simply moved on. "How about how Duo felt? You didn't help," I pointed out, deftly deflecting the guilt onto Chang, "but then, none of us did," I added, dishing it back onto the rest of us for good measure. "We all left Duo dangling in the breeze."

And as much as I wanted to think that what Chang said about Yuy not being attracted to Duo was wishful thinking on his part, it was wishful thinking on my part, too.

"It was a cowardly thing to do," Wufei said. "Disgraceful, and I apologize for my inaction at the time. It wasn't something I wanted to know was real at the time. We were comrades in arms, survivors of the war, men ready to strike out on our own, and then Maxwell up and confessed his _love_ for Yuy. And you were serious! Nobody wished for the stigma homosexuality would bring them."

"I was more shocked," I confided.

"Nothing wrong with being gay in my book," Duo said. "No one ever told me it would make me a pariah or anything. And I was sure he felt the same way." Duo shrugged away the bad feelings.

_Oh, yeah? Why was that? What had he done to make you think he liked you? _Damn, not talking was hard, too, but I held my tongue.

"Maybe he did," Chang said. "Deep down but it was your saying it out loud and in public like that, embarrassing him, that angered him so. But, Yuy felt terrible later. He told me so. We had many discussions and sorted out many of our feelings toward other people."

"I meant that I thought he felt the same way about gay folks being equal and okay and all. I hadn't a clue that he felt I was anything more than one of his war buddies, I was just hoping he might. I was wrong big time. Did he tell you his feelings 'bout faggots, 'Fei? 'Cause if you're crushing on him, you're one too, and then where's that friendship you're pining over going to go? Straight to Hell—I'll put my money on that race horse."

Now, would have been a good time to tell Chang what I knew.

"Wufei!" Winner called as he split apart from his Platinum Prince to welcome him. "Come and greet Zechs."

And maybe I would have clued in Wufei on the Heero's-gay rumors, had he not left me for Merquise.


	5. And I Can Dream of Friendly Skies

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Five—**

**And I Can Dream of Friendly Skies**

* * *

Once again, I was to be subjected to a defeat at the hands of Zechs Merquise, but, at least, he had no idea he was winning this time. He was well into a thirty-minute, war-story soliloquy, and Duo was nodding on my shoulder, when Rashid entered the patio area and took a seat on Winner's other side. The Maguanac leader poured himself a glass of lemonade, gestured an offering to pour for anyone else, and then sat back to sip and listen.

He and I started a staring contest. I was _so_ going to win.

"So, Lieutenant Noin—" Merquise started to say.

"Don't get me started with her!" Chang charged in, stomping all over the prince's anecdote.

"Please, Zechs, don't go there," Winner advised in what he considered to be a whisper in his lover's direction.

Chang and Noin had had a bad history, starting with his having killed all her young recruits. I so wanted Merquise to go there and make Chang squirm. He had once hurt Duo's feelings with his anti-gay attitude and didn't deserve to get off so easily. Besides, we were _there_, after all, weren't we?

Rashid blinked and I smiled. Ah, ha! _Score, sucker_. I knew I'd win that contest.

"There's bad blood between them," Rashid explained to the prince.

"So, Wufei, it _was_ you bombing one Alliance base after the other--" Merquise muttered. One blade-thin wisp of pallid eyebrow lifted, an edge of titty-pink lip pealed back to reveal a sharpened canine—White Fang—the name finally came together for me! "--killing all the new recruits in their sleep."

Chang did look a bit more pallid than usual.

The fang grew more prominent, glittering in the sunlight. "You do know that the dead all turned out to be Noin's trainees in that attack?"

Chang wasn't sure what to say. "Well I hadn't meant…that wasn't the plan—"

"Of course not. That's war. Besides, Lieutenant Noin left to side with you all eventually anyway, as did I." Merquise smiled, retracted the fangs, and reached for the icy pitcher. "Alliances shifted."

"I had a _shifty_ lieutenant like that," Rashid said.

"Oh, really?" Merquise appeared interested, but with a countenance like that, so blasé, who knew? "Whatever became of him?"

"Friendly fire."

I exploded into laughter; rather, I sputtered into chuckles, woke up Duo momentarily, and pleased the hell out of Rashid.

A new conversation began centering on a Winner company picnic incident that promised to be "so funny" I'd die. Preferring not to die, I fake-listened, draping a fringe of hair over that side of my face and covertly studying the place from behind the screen. Rashid caught my eye, his sliding back and forth from Duo to me making the connection, and tipped me off to "come this way."

I extricated myself from Duo, gently settling his once-again sleeping head on the table, and sidled over to where Rashid was folding napkins.

"So, you and the little one from the streets, eh?"

"Duo, yeah. I'm the lucky one." I knew I was.

"He's a good boy. He visited Master Winner here during the war and was very funny." His eyebrows bounced around like belly dancers which I thought was very funny. We both laughed. "They liked to watch the dancing boys more than the girls and I thought they were lovers, but," he shook his head in consternation, while I wondered if he could read my mind or something, "it was not so. Master Winner was naïve and oblivious, and the little street boy was too proud to be provocative in that manner."

"You were very observant in any case," I had to give him that.

He grinned. "Rashid didn't live this long a healthy life being blind, deaf and dumb, no? Ho, ho… So, you and him, you are happy together now?"

Oh, yeah, his corps flew Duo to my satellite, the interfering bastard. "I am."

"He looks happy too."

"I plan to keep him that way. All I have to do is get him to leave now and things will be cool."

"Now? So soon? The other pilot, he's not yet arrived. Don't you--? Ah…"

Yeah, well, he could "ah" all he wanted, I would not flinch.

"It is him you are worried about? Mr. Sourpuss?"

Ha! I smiled at that. "Yes. Duo had a thing for Yuy once."

"They shouldn't meet alone."

"No, shit, but Chang seems eager to see the guy."

"Him? The other bad-tempered one? Fitting. Tell you what; I like you and your little street boy. I can help sort things out in your favor. You see. Excuse me." Rashid turned to adjust his earpiece and attend to another conversation, probably with staff over the roasting of dinner or the cutting of flowers.

I didn't want the Maguanac corps meddling in my affairs again, but if Rashid could lend a hand or two, I'd be open to take it.

When I returned to the table, Duo was awake and pestering Chang to the demonstrative stage again. _Go for it!_

"I forgot where I met him!" Chang waved his arms around to indicate just how large the universe actually was with so many places in it where a person might meet a person. "That's unimportant!"

"Yeah, it is," Duo agreed, dismissing the point with a teasing sort of smile and leaving Chang huffing mad. "So you've been sitting in a funk for a couple months and decided to kick the tires a little?"

"I came here for—" He went all limp, resigning himself to the chair and table support system again, "God only knows what anymore. It's hopeless."

"Not hopeless. You've got hope. Heartless, maybe. It hasn't been proven 'Ro's gotta heart yet. Now Quat and Zechs, on the other hand. That odd … searching, searching for the word… "

"Combo," I supplied.

Duo's handsome face lit up. "That's the word! _That_ combo is just plain weird, starting with you, Quat."

"Me? I'm about as normal as ex-Gundam pilots go. I don't understand what you mean."

"My point's that you've done a 360 on me here."

"Not really, Duo." I noticed Winner shift his feet around and bet Duo was right and they both knew it.

"Oh yeah, you don't remember, conveniently, it but I recall you being very clearly homophobic towards me and very clearly engaged to Relena, clearly a female if there ever was one."

"What does that prove?" Chang blurted out. "You were living with Hilde, and she was a woman."

"She still is," Duo countered. "I'm not offering proof that Quat's not a poof, I'm just saying he did an about-face, that's all. I don't care, really. Just saying."

"I did do some soul searching," Winner said, sounding a tad defensive.

Find it, I wondered?

"So, you made the first move?" Duo was persistent in his search for answers. I guess I didn't blame him for wanting to know why he and he alone suffered for being THE ONLY gay one for years, while it turns out they all, well _I_ knew it was all, were gay.

"That's pretty daring considering you didn't really know Zechs," Duo spun about to look Merquise in the eye, slapping me in the face with his braid. A love slap. I found it provocative, the one time. Duo found Merquise's soft spot, himself; Zechs Merquise, talking about Zechs Merquise held his attention, and went on with his analysis, "especially if he didn't know you were gay!"

Another turnabout, but this time I held onto the rope of hair. I'm not into flagellation, apparently. So much for the me-being-into-S&M theory.

"C'mon, Quat, you know you'd been repressing your own sexuality for years. All those beautiful dancing boys in the see-thru harem pants, and not once did you need to jerk-off?"

My eyes shifted to Rashid, questioning, just in case new dancers might be offstage, somewhere in the offing, ready to put on a show should the master clap his hands. A man could dream. _The_ man, Rashid, was bigger than life; just standing there he took up about as much space as a Gundam, met my eyes and shook his head. Alas, no pretty boys in see-thru harem pants would bring welcome relief. And by now Merquise had Winner distracted, whispering in his ear.

"No!" Winner said to his lover. Wrong, wrong word. The prince didn't look used to taking "no' for an answer. "The dancers were for entertainment only! My father's idea! There aren't any here anymore. Hmmm? Well, I'm sure that could be arranged."

Duo kicked Winner's chair to get his attention back.

"What, Duo?"

"Can we get back to my questions?" Duo demanded, rightly so. "I mean, the big thing I was wondering about was how you got from being repressed and homophobic—"

"What?!"

"Yes, I called you that. You were _aghast and appalled_ at my coming out. And then you magically transition from that kid to suddenly becoming confident enough to make a move on Zechs, especially as you didn't necessarily know Zexy was gay, as I said before."

"Should we tell him how we met?" Merquise asked in a voice like velvet cushions. "This time you can give your side."

AGAIN?!

I spun on a heel and aimed for the door inside, muttering, "bathroom" in passing. I'd invent a reoccuring bladder ailment, if I had to. I _would_ avoid torture. Duo had withstood OZ interrogations before, in fact, both he and Chang had. They could take it. I wasn't sure I could endure another round. I had to protect myself from the sap-attack. Note to self: find out later how Winner discovered himself, if Duo survives the telling.


	6. I Guess That I'm the Lucky One

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Six—**

**I Guess That I'm the Lucky One**

* * *

When I returned from my bathroom adventure, the others were filing into the grand hall to feed.

"Here comes Trowa!" Winner announced.

"Lord, I was afraid he'd fallen in," Merquise commented about my tardiness.

Funny.

Winner looked confused. "Fallen into what?"

Merquise rolled his eyes and smiled with a patronizing manner I'd hate if it were me, which it would never be. "The toilet. Wasn't that where he'd gone?"

"Oh!" Winner chuckled.

The dinner bell rang and the herd lumbered to the trough, everyone but Duo. He bounced to my side and grabbed my arm, shepherding me to the dining hall in style.

I pulled the veil of bangs from my face and batted my eyes at him. "Muuh!" I lowed.

He joined me with his own bovine bellow. "Mooooooo."

Style. Yeah, and class, but most of all it was a glorious moment where Duo shared his unerring, outgoing sense of humor with my rather bubble-like one.

The food was good, but I could eat crap and regularly had until Duo started cooking for me. I could heat a can of beans, soup, chili, hash, tamales. I could boil water and pour it over a tea bag, freeze-dried coffee, ramen. I could reconstitute eggs and—no, I couldn't.

We were awaiting dessert and drinking a dark, fragrant sludge Rashid called "coffee" and Duo kept calling "heaven, baby," when Yuy Pissant put in his appearance. Chang, who'd been extolling the virtues of honey from Chinese pear trees, only from blossoms growing on the south side of the trees, if you believe that malarkey, went pristine-sheet-white, snapped shut his mouth like a nervous clam, and suddenly stopped talking, refusing to say any more.

Winner and Rashid greeted _him_ politely, Merquise dipped a royal chin, I sipped and wished him gone, silently of course. Duo stood up and shook his hand.

"Hiya, 'Ro. Long time no see."

"Duo."

"Say hi to 'Fei," Duo insisted.

"Hi."

"Yuy, you look we-ell." Yes, his voice cracked. And here I thought Chang was past puberty.

The two men gave the impression of looking at one another through slippery air. Using their averted vision, they looked askance at one another, fleeting looks, glancing off the images, peeking without looking, slipping sideways glances out of the corners of their eyes. Very juvenile but also rather you-deserve-it, painfully cute.

"Would you like some dinner?" Winner was pushing plates and cups toward the empty seat. Nothing there to tempt me, but Yuy stepped closer and gripped the chair back.

"Later." He concentrated his intensity on Duo. "I need a moment. With you."

No way did I want that to happen, but I felt defeated when Duo agreed to go with him. Well, this would be it, then, wouldn't it? Yuy would reveal his miraculous change of orientation and make-over as a gay man in love with Duo Maxwell. Duo would be unable to fight the feelings he'd harbored for the war hero since the day he'd met him, in spite of his real, though lesser, feelings for me. Who wouldn't trade up if they could?

"Sir, the Blue Room is currently unoccupied. Bashir may enter to arrange flowers at the sink, but he's nearly deaf. Combat damage. Very unfortunate."

"Fine. The Blue Room. C'mon, 'Ro." Duo nearly, but not actually, touched Yuy's arm to lead him away. He did touch my arm. "Be right back."

To let me down gently, sure. But the twisting in my stomach meant I wasn't accepting defeat elegantly at all. I just might upchuck chow all over the beautiful carpeting if I didn't act. I wanted Duo to insist I accompany them, but he didn't.

Man, I hated feeling this way. I loved Duo with all my heart. I didn't want to lose him. Well, so why was I letting fucking Yuy just waltz in and claim his prize, my prize? Hadn't I proven my worth to some extent?

Guess not. Not really. Duo just found me. I'd made no effort to win him. I hadn't been as emphatically anti-gay and turned on Duo at his coming out as Yuy, but at the time I hadn't shown much support and shorn up Duo either. Then only conclusion being that I didn't deserve Duo any more than Yuy, so I should just let Duo chose.

I hated this. I just stood there, not moving, and let Duo walk away with Yuy without challenging them or anything. I wanted to scream, punch Yuy out, claim Duo, for starters.

More rationally, I wanted to listen in to that conversation, but how?

Rashid caught me up by the arm and pulled me aside. "This way."

"What?" I asked as he led me into a room the size of a closet. It was a closet and much too small for me and him to fit without being far closer friends, much less the other man in the _closet _with us.

"Put this on." Rashid said to me as he pointed toward what another of his men was holding: a Maguanac costume. "Amid, help him with his disguise." The room expanded to vast dimensions the moment Rashid left it.

"This goes on first," Amid said, helping he step into a loose purple jumpsuit.

He wrapped my waist in a dark blue scarf and handed me a matching vest.

"This won't fool Yuy," I told him. Honestly! Did they think the ex-pilot wouldn't see my face?

"Not done!" Amid clicked his tongue. Well, I was just trying to help, pointing out the obvious.

On went a round, little hat and a quick hair repair. Not enough. Then a pair of round glasses with darkly tinted lenses. That would help. Then he plastered a great dark brown moustache over my lip. Well, that did the trick. He held up a tiny hand mirror for me to check the results. Not bad, if it stayed on.

"Flowers. We'll carry them in. One end of the room has a table and sink. Come now."

He wouldn't arrange for the fake moustache to fall off would he? Would he?

All right, say he wouldn't. The thing could fall off anyway without Amid or Rashid's scheming it to. I had to concentrate on blending in, passing into that room without drawing attention.

"So, 'Ro, I get that you didn't come here to punch me out again, and that you're sorry you did a long time ago. Oh—must be…ah… Bashir… and, ah--?"

Amid bowed slightly and supplied Duo his name. "Amid." He placed himself between the others and me and held up his bundle of flowers. "We won't be long."

"No problem, amigos. We're just having a friendly chat."

I was glad to hear that and busied myself with a vase and foam stuff, copying what Amid was doing up to the flower arranging part. Yuy glared our way and edged Duo further off, nearly up against the window. He sure had become more tolerant in his old age; I was surprised Yuy didn't order us out of the room.

Now, I'd never stuck a stem in a vase, but I had seen a lot of bouquets done up for Valentine's Day. I was also adept at fitting in for the infiltration assignments I had done during the war, so, with my disguise (still!) firmly in place, I picked out three long skinny flower stalks and stuck them into the green foam: one in the middle and one each at right angles at the sides, in a triangle.

"What is that you are doing, Master Bar--?"

"Bashir. I'm supposed to be deaf, remember," I said under my breath.

"You interested in my offer now, are ya?" Duo asked Yuy.

"That's not the way we—" Amid began.

I hushed Amid. Yuy was saying something.

"You are an attractive man, Duo, but if I had designs on you, do you think I would have helped hook you up with Barton?"

Maybe, if it was to soften him up.

"How would I know? It's not like I get how your mind works. The only one of us that gets you is 'Fei."

I didn't catch Yuy's expression, but I detected a hitch in his breath. I stuffed great mounds of blue flowers into my creation, balancing it all, and then looked for green things for contrast.

"You are mixing hydrangeas with glads?" Amid asked, obviously with some disapproval. I think it looked okay.

"With gladness," I said.

"Wufei," Yuy whispered.

I missed their next interchange, and then Yuy raised his voice a little. "How did you get Barton to notice you? No, not notice… he couldn't _not_ notice you; I mean, how did you get him to, ah—"

"Make a move? You don't think I took charge?"

"No, I assumed you'd wait for him, to be sure."

"The laurel—" Amid bumped my arm to get it closer to the big flat leaves rather than the more delicate fern I wanted. I preferred the fern, still, and took that. I hoped Duo preferred me to the hot guy next to him, but why should he chose the ordinary over the exotic any more than me?

"It took awhile to work out who was what and who wanted what and all. We had time and nothing else to do and it was kinda painful, angst-ridden, awkward fun, the suspense and all."

"That you considered fun? Sounds excruciating, and it worked out?"

It did for me.

"You betcher sweet ass, it did. Tro's everything I could wish for and more than I deserve."

Duo actually said that right to Yuy's face. My smile nearly split my face. White roses, I knew the name of those, would work fine with the other flowers and made me think of Duo at Valentine's time, so I dotted the arrangement with a dozen or so and smiled.

"That's… spectacular, ma-as—"

"_Bashir_, you dolt," I whispered.

"Ah, Bashir, yes. I didn't see it at first, but your taste is exquisite."

I tried to shush the good man up. I didn't want to draw attention our way. Didn't matter, since the other two were absorbed with their chat.

Yuy asked, rather loudly, "Doesn't it bother you that he's still carrying a flame for Winner?"

No! I was most certainly not carrying anything for Winner, especially a blazing... thing!

Duo, bless his ego awash in security, laughed. "If ever he was, I blew it out. And believe me, I know how to deliver a top notch blow-job, heh, heh."

A wave of heat coming from deep inside me nearly torched my brain. I wasn't one to blush, much, but I sure was doing it now. That was intimate stuff to overhear! Intimate stuff to share, also, Maxwell…

"Okay, Barton, you can get out of that ridiculous getup now."

I coughed and nearly up-tipped my flower arrangement. Yuy knew it had been me all along? Had Duo been reassuring me as well as trying to impress Yuy with how good our relationship was getting along? I felt pretty silly, but I'd been a clown in the circus, so it was no big deal.

Duo skipped up first and slammed me with a delicious coffee-flavored kiss. When he pulled away, I saw a moustache dangling from his hair, and snatched it before anyone else saw it. Yuy saw it, I think, though, from the smirk on his face. He didn't say anything, however. Smart man. I'd been saving up a punch to be delivered to his face.

Amid a flourish of flowers, Amid, took off.

"I want the big blue bunch of flowers in my room," Yuy called out. Real comedian.

"Yes, sir!"

"Heero's gay, 'Tro. How about that, eh?"

"I'd been told," I said without thinking. I hadn't wanted to admit that to either of them.

Yuy, naturally, lit on my faux pas immediately like the predator he was. "Who told you?"

"My sister said it was a rumor." Hopefully this wouldn't get back to Cathy, although she hadn't said it was a confidence. Now that I thought about it, it had almost been as if she'd intended for me to pass on my information. Well, consider it passed. Much like gas.

"How did Catherine pick up on that rumor?" Yuy asked.

"Relena told her, she said."

"Relena." Yuy ground out all three syllables just to get them right, I guessed. "I thought I could trust her."

"Um, what did you do?" Duo asked. "'Cuz if she was crushing on you while she was dating Quat, I could see the disappointment building."

"She was. I don't know, I never gave her any encouragement, but then I never gave you any either."

"You must exude sexual intoxicants," Duo said. He was joking, some.

Yuy gave him a snarly look. "Whatever. I told her I wasn't interested in a romantic entanglement with her or any woman. Then she labeled me 'gay' and had a fit about all the men in her life turning to each other and not her—something equally stupid."

"…Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd—"

"I know!" he snapped off my recitation, right at roots. Ouch.

"Just telling your secret to Cathy was a rather mild reaction, I think," Duo said, helping me untie the rag at my waist. "There was a story over the shuttle news we watched on the way here –"

"From the now_-_that's-fury dept," I said. I wadded up the vest and jumpsuit and held the roll together with the handy waist tie.

"Heh, heh, yeah, the joke practically wrote itself," he chuckled.

Yuy was thrumming with impatience. "The story?"

"Yeah," Duo beamed at him. "Okay, this was over in China, apparently a mobile phone retailer was abandoning his marriage, and his wife was upset about this, so much so that she gathered up like 400 new phones that her husband was trying to sell and set them on fire on their bed."

I had no idea what Yuy was going to say or do, but I would have given up on any serious confrontation by this time and gone back for that dessert.

"What propellant did she use?" he asked.

What the hell?

Duo, God love the guy, didn't blink or flinch. "Kerosene."

Rashid stuck his head past the door and announced, "My apologies for the interruption, but dessert-- it is about to be served. Tonight, it's a flambé, and Master is holding the show for you to join us."

"Better some fruit getting fried than me," Yuy muttered on his way out.

_Au contraire. _What better fruit, than him_,_ I wondered?

* * *

A/N: The "…like a Woman scorn'd" quote from William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697


	7. For the Truth of What I Know

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Seven—**

**For the Truth of What I Know**

* * *

In passing, I handed over my costume-roll to Rashid and shrugged a "thanks," giving Duo just enough room to squeeze by us and catch up with Yuy.

Duo grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him slowly. Duo had gumption. He usually paired it with smarts and ability. This time it looked like all attitude to me. I was ready to step in and protect him from getting his arm ripped off, if it came to that. I had a strong sense of self-preservation which extended to my lover, but lucky for us all I didn't have to test my skills against Yuy's.

"Hey!" Duo said. "Why?"

Aw, no, please no.

"I mean it. Stop a minute."

Let it go Duo.

Yuy waited. "I thought we were done."

"I wanna know right now why you treated me that way after I bared my heart to you?"

I really should have asked him _out loud_ to stop , even shouted to get his attention.

There were times when my silence implied my acquiescence when actually I was conflicted or avoiding a quarrel. And I really, really, really wished Duo didn't need to know the answer to his question. Knowing he did was deeply disappointing.

I half expected (hoped?) Yuy would grunt and walk away, but he actually took the time to explain after a short, thoughtful, pause.

"I had no libido whatsoever when you kissed me and confessed your affections, but I knew enough to think homosexuality signaled an end to replicating the human race and that it was frowned on generally."

Well, that was sparse on emotions. Yuy had been as detached from Duo as I could wish for. Now, let's go.

"So, you rejected me, a valued comrade, and as hot as a guy comes, like _that_? You must have been on anti-sex drugs or something."

Please, drop it.

Now Yuy was glaring at me. Did he expect me to control Duo? I turned away not wanting to be a part of the conversation any more.

"Duo, you are an idiot," Yuy declared. "It shouldn't matter to you anymore that I once snubbed your advances, because you have Barton. You'd think having a devoted boyfriend would be enough for you and that you'd drop the past."

"He is enough," Duo said with feeling. "I said so. I just was curious 'bout you, that's all."

Duo reached to my head and pulled off my Maguanacs cap. My bangs, freed, fell into my eyes. "And you," he poked me above my belly button and shook the hat in my face, "dressed up like this to listen in on my private conversation? If it hadn't been a ridiculously inane performance, I might have thought you didn't trust me or something around Heero."

"I trust—" I tried to explain.

But Duo had a valid point. "You spied on us."

I did and I felt guilty for doing so. Yuy surprised me, though, with a very supportive statement. "It's obvious. Barton was protecting you from another attack by me."

Well, that and other things…

"I figured that out, love," Duo kissed my ear and sucked on my earlobe to melt my reserve, "but I can fight my own fights now, thank you." He bit down hard enough to make me jump. "As Heero justly pointed out, I was thinking 'bout me. I haven't done enough for you. It's different me giving you time to talk to Quat alone, even though Zechs blew that for you—"

"I never had a thing for Winner like you had for—" Let's make _that_ clear.

"Yeah, I figured that out, too." Duo winked. "I hope it's plain how I think of us?"

"Yeah." That had been pretty cool, hearing him declare his love for me in front of Yuy.

"You make Barton less secure when you act as if you regret the past."

We both just stared open-mouthed at Yuy, who continued talking.

"He had no idea if I might try to win you over, but he knew you were obsessing over having been turned down."

"Wasn't obsessing," Duo muttered.

"Listen, from what I can see, you two have a good thing going, so don't fuck it up with stupid, pointless jealousies and misunderstandings, especially don't get me involved."

"Sorry, if I made you doubt your worth, your value to me, 'Tro, 'cause you're kindest, sexist man alive." Duo enveloped me in an embrace I never wanted to be parted from.

"Winner's waiting." And with that, Yuy started back to the dining room.

"Hold on!" Duo called after him.

"What?"

"So you dumped Relena--okay, not _dumped--_ you _dodged_ her advances, and you didn't bring someone to this party, so am I to guess that means there is no significant other in your life as of the moment?"

I covered my face with a hand and groaned. Duo was relentless today.

Yuy shrugged off his desire to explain further.

"So there is someone?"

Give it UP, Duo.

Yuy was flaying him alive with the force of his glare, or trying to.

"Gotcha." Duo grinned as if he'd won the lottery. "You really want to get closer to _him_, don't you?" he asked.

Yuy's entire body shook. He was about to kill Duo on the spot or he was struggling to keep from self-destructing. I didn't want to be an audience for either alternative, frankly. I stepped backwards, pulling Duo out of the direct line of action, mumbling my own sage advice, "He doesn't want to be closer to **us**."

Yuy sighed and then nodded. "Yeah, I do."

Duo did that smile of his that said "all's forgiven," and said, "You're on. Get ready for the best time of your life." He looked over at me. "You'll help me, right? I mean, hooking 'Ro an' 'Fei up will take the all the man power we can muster."

Of course I would. "I thought we'd just say something like, 'Guys get a room.'"

Duo's smile faltered. "Uh… guess we'll need Quat to come up with a strategy." He smiled sympathetically my way. "When it comes time for that line, it's yours, love."

Thanks?

And then there was Yuy's receding back to contend with.

By the time we dashed to the dining room, Yuy had already taken a seat at the table. Did he choose the open chair next to Chang, you ask? No. More of that adolescent behavior made him take the chair in the middle, splitting Duo and me apart and ensuring he'd sit next to Duo no matter what.

Would I just take that sitting down, you ask, but only if you had a corny sense of humor? No, and Duo wouldn't either. He and I went up to Yuy, one of us on either side of his chair, and picked him up, chair and all. He lost his smug expression and complained some. Duo kicked the chair next to Chang to the side and we dropped Yuy, chair and all, right into place.

Duo retrieved the other chair while I plunked myself in the one next to Yuy. "Thanks," I said to him. "Get to know our old friend, Chang, there."

There was some rough talk and all coming from him, but all in all the new seating arrangements worked out fine. Set before me was a dish of flaming peaches over rich, creamy ice cream. As I dipped in for a taste I realized how much the dessert represented us. All this show, this gruff or showy exterior over a really sweet, melty interior. A burn to the tongue here meant a soothing chill later. But then I didn't like imagining Yuy's melty interior, or that he even had one, and dropped the analogy.

"You dropped your spoon, Master Barton. Here, I have an extra."

"Thanks, Rashid."

The flaming peaches over rich, creamy ice cream made a delicious dessert, too.


	8. For My Heart Has Not Denied Me

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing, adding a few of the most precious lines at the end, and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Eight—**

**For My Heart Has Not Denied Me**

* * *

I should have known Duo would want me to "use my charms" to get Winner's cooperation in the Mission Preposterous. That moment came about obliquely an hour or so after dessert.

"How about a re-enactment then?" Duo was asking.

"Absolutely not!" Chang's retort had its own cutting edge. "What Treize Khushrenada and I had, he took to his grave with him."

I wondered if Chang thought about what he said before he said it. That could be taken a couple of ways.

"Okay, then just a little sword action?" Duo stabbed the air with his table knife.

That, too.

Merquise snatched the blade out of his hands. "I believe your wishes can be accommodated, isn't that right, My Heart?"

And that as well.

Winner perked up. "Yes, we maintain fencing equipment and a fine gymnasium, if you'd like, I could—"

"Don't you bother your pretty head over that," Duo said breezily, 'In fact, why don't you entertain Tro'man while I watch the boys go at it. He hates sword play--"

I do?

"—comes from being under the knife for surgery," Duo explained as he draped an arm over Chang's shoulders, under Yuy's intense and unhappy-looking scrutiny and Chang's intense and unhappy-looking countenance.

Yuy looked from Duo to me and back. "I'll keep an eye on the dangerous activities."

"Good idea," I agreed.

Winner took a step in their direction, but was held up by my foot on his instep. He turned a cranky face to me. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"Yes." I supposed I should. Pencil in a moment to thank Duo for leaving this part to me. "Duo's playing matchmaker for Chang and Yuy and wants you to come up with a surefire plan." There, I spit it out. Over and done.

And I swear I saw hearts streaming from his big, liquid blue eyes.

"Really?"

"Would I joke about something like that?"

His eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. "Maybe."

We stayed that way for a few seconds then he gave in. "It's too much fun contemplating this to waste more time. Tell me what you know."

I did in as few words as possible. "They are both interested yet too socially incompetent to hook up on their own, Duo thinks, and need us to supply the words, the setting, and the opportunities."

"Like this fencing match?" he asked.

I think Winner imagined better than I what was going on, the boys stripping down to comfortable clothing, lanky sweaty bodies, yards of hair swirling, blades glinting-- and I was doing a pretty fair job of it.

"Yes."

His eyes went wide with wonder and visions and he licked his lips. "It's a good start, but we can't let Duo win at this and have all the fun."

Why not? "We can't?"

"No, we have to do better."

We? Why "we" and not just an "I," as in "him," not me? I had to extricate myself before I was factored further into Winner's machinations. If you'd been there to witness Zero Winner upfront and personal then you'd understand why; he'd very nearly killed me.

"There is no master plan for getting two people to fall in love," I said, and damned nearly amazed myself for coming up with that bit of wisdom all by myself.

"Of course not! I didn't mean to imply I could work miracles, just spark the fuel." He smiled a polite smile. Nice, but nothing like Duo's except that he was covering up for what he was really thinking. "It starts with Rashid."

Doesn't everything around here?

"You and I should go swimming and meet the others by the pool."

I would not ask him why. Or argue. "Okay." It would pass the time.

"I'm changing in my room and I need to find Rashid." He directed me to the pool house where I would find swim wear, "if you want it."

I did. What was the alternative, swimming nude with him? How would I explain that to Duo? I could not conceive of a more excruciatingly painful situation to explain. I shivered just thinking about the look on Duo's face as I tried to tell him, "it felt good being free" or "it really meant nothing", while imagining how I'd feel if I walked in on him and Yuy naked in the pool. Why, I wondered, did I do that to myself? Why did I punish myself thinking up such terrible scenarios to get caught up in? Why couldn't I stop?!

Sometimes, my mind was a minefield of fun.

I moved from one imaginary hazardous situation to another more real one. I found appropriate swimwear and did a few laps, which felt good and was good. Winner took his time conducting the business of putting his plan into action and didn't join me until I was climbing out. One look at svelte little Winner in his skimpy getup, however, set off every still functional alarm in my mind, and I dove back in for a few more laps. When at last my arms refused to keep me afloat any longer, I got out using the steps on shaky legs. I had hoped to slink away innocuously, since invisibility was out of the question.

"Over here!" he called gaily and waved from a row of chaise lounges, which lined up and heaped with puffy pillows and towels reminded me of beached whales.

I tried to keep that picture in the forefront of my mind as I chose one to stretch out onto. Nothing pale, pretty, and pink about bloated whales.

A few minutes later, fresh and gleaming from their showers, the sword-boys joined Winner and me sunbathing by the pool, he in his microscopic pink speedo and me in my to-the-knees, modest trunks still dripping with water. I clearly had been in the water, while he had not-- proving we hadn't been in close proximity for long. I'm not stupid. I know the difference between attraction and love, and I wanted no ambiguity for Duo to have to interpret.

Yuy was first to complain. "Winner. There's a Maguanac in my room with drop-cloths and blue tape."

Chang stated his grievance next. "I discovered his clothes in my room."

"Ashir's?" Quatre asked with a look of complete disbelief on his face.

Chang lost his tidy look as he crumpled the corner of his tunic with one hand. "No, Yuy's."

Quatre smiled and offered his pretense of a regretful excuse. "I'm afraid your room's being painted, Heero."

"How about the gold room?"

"Water leak."

"Green?"

I guess Heero'd been a more frequent visitor here than I'd thought.

"Window repair."

"The," _gulp,_ "pink?"

"Something."

I smiled. Winner hadn't even attempted to come up with another lame excuse.

"You and Wufei can share," he suggested light as the evening breeze tousled his golden hair.

Um. Chang clicked his tongue. Yuy clenched and unclenched his fists as he walked around to stand just so. Now, he was casting his shadow over Winner.

Winner slipped his sunglasses down his nose and looked at them both in turn. "I can't push the Maguanacs out of their rooms, can I?"

"Yes, you can." Heero said.

"They work for you." Chang agreed.

"Oh, dear," Winner shook his head. "Don't be so prissy."

More growling.

"Oh, okay, I could move a rollaway cot in there if you insist--"

Chang stepped in to complete our tidy circle and shade my legs. "If Heero needs a room, he can have mine. I can sleep on the floor. An exercise mat will be sufficient." His thin smile beamed noble _magnanimousity_.

Was Chang the bigger man? I didn't know the answer to that. I'd never seen him nude, actually. Yuy, yes--when he'd self-destructed his clothes were burned off; Chang, no.

Not to be bested at the game, any game, Yuy said, "Don't be ridiculous. I can sleep on the floor—without a mat."

"The weather is fine. I can sleep on the patio," Chang said, proudly shirking his carnal needs.

Of course, why would Chang need a mat? He can levitate!

"The decking would be better than most places I slept during the war," Yuy said, establishing that he was tough as nails.

"A blanket on the lawn--."

A blanket? You wimp!

"--That patch of concrete by the pool."

That's more like it!

Before either of them could claim the rock ledge covered in broken glass as the perfect resting place, my dear Duo suggested, "Why don't you just share Chang's bed? That's gotta be way worse than any other alternative I can think of."

I felt it was time for my line. "Yeah, get a room, guys."


	9. I Have Somewhere to Go

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this. This one's for Snowdragon, who would have thought of the water.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Nine—**

**I Have Somewhere to Go**

* * *

Yuy was not a prude, so he said, and Chang was not proud to a fault, he claimed. So to prove their flexibility and all around bonhomie, they accepted Winner's challenge to share a room and parted from our company at Chang's door, together.

Duo and Winner celebrated with a little dance together in the hall that called for hip bumping and high fives. Merquise and I held up either side of the hall, leaning on the walls and looking tired of something, while actually admiring our willowy boyfriends' antics, or asses. Lots of togetherness all around.

I thought it was too soon to mark this up as a done deal. I knew that to shut up a panther and a leopard in the same room could result in a bloody mess, however much the two had in common.

Merquise was no dummy himself; I had to give him that. He scooped up his lover and shook _him_ like a dummy. "This will not work."

"It might. I'll know pretty soon."

"How--? No, don't ruin it for me," the prince said.

I knew that imagining Rashid outside, hung up in some tree with a telescope focused on an opening, a mere crack in the window covering, through which he could study the going's on inside, was not far from the truth. I didn't want to know for sure. I wanted to go to bed.

"Do any of you know if either one of them has ever had a relationship lasting more than a day?" Merquise asked.

As far as I knew, they worked alone by preference during the war. "No."

"Wufei was married once," Duo said, "but she died and they were only fourteen."

"Dear God," the lanky blond said, accompanied by a huge sigh. "Re-la-shun-ship. Anything since they were teenagers?"

"Heero always liked his laptop," Winner submitted. "It often sat in his lap, ran hot, and hummed at his touch."

I smiled. I couldn't help it. It was funny and I was bushed.

"They've been emailing one another," Duo said, trying, I figured, to recoup some ground.

"Getting to really know one another is important," Winner said. "We—"

Before Winner or Zechs could begin recaps of their insufferable tale, I summarized it as "you met over a business meeting, more or less."

I ruined his moment, I could tell when Winner's voice went flat as he said, "Mostly less, but basically that was our common ground."

Duo shrugged. "I had no place to go, and Trowa had the place but no leg to stand on, heh, heh…"

I smiled. "Disabled and enabled."

Merquise must have been tiring of our act, probably as much as I had of theirs. He cleared his throat then intoned like a depth bomb, "They need a cause to bring them together. Something to fight for."

"A mission." Winner nailed Yuy's psychological needs precisely.

And then his lover adroitly stapled Chang in place. "A mission for a just cause."

Winner smiled. "And I have just the thing."

Again, I didn't want to know.

He would go through with his plan whether I liked it or not. I would get pulled into the warped world of Winnerkins, ensnared because Duo would he hopping on board the Winner Wonderland train.

"Duo?" I know, I probably sounded pathetic, too.

He must have read my body language, which was rapidly losing contact with this world. The shuttle flight, securing our bed and other belongings in storage, the entire emotional yo-yo of a day ending with a swimming marathon all added up to one exhausting day.

"I'm taking my man away now," he announced, wrapping an arm around my waist in a comforting way. "No wake up calls, please."

"Don't worry," Winner said. "This is a vacation for us all. Oh, I hear Rashid calling me." Winner took off down the hall like a man on a mission.

"Did anyone else hear Rashid?" Duo asked.

No.

Uh, huh. Well, I suffered Duo to drag me to our room. You didn't hear me complain about having to share a bed, did you? I was too tired to get beyond a quick tooth brushing. Duo must have stripped me, or I would have crashed fully clothed.

(o)

The next morning found me writhing awake to a blowjob, or the start of one. "Oh, God—"

Duo's head came up. "You smell like chlorine bleach."

"Pool water."

"Oh, okay, no prob." He was back on the job, bringing me to a climax before my eyes had focused.

"Jesus, Duo—"

"Hey, I was hungry and you were sleeping."

I started laughing.

"I say something funny?"

"You were hungry so," I laughed some more, "so are you now?"

"Yeah, that's why—" He snorted and slapped my thigh. "Very funny. I'll let you know cum isn't very filling. I don't find it very filling anyway. It's not even very—ahh."

Duo in the throes of ecstasy was an awesome sight. I did my best to make the spectacle last for me and the sensations last for him. It still bowled me over when I thought that bundle of energy and smashing beauty was all for me.

Nevertheless, it didn't make a dent in my hunger pangs either.

We didn't bother showering, knowing we'd be in the pool soon enough, and moseyed into the dining room.

"I must be nice to have people cook for you," Duo said to the room at large as he helped himself to rolls, cheese, and hard boiled eggs.

"It is," I said, and it was. Duo cooked for me almost exclusively. I wasn't falling for this act. I knew he didn't mean he wanted me to share the cooking because we'd had that discussion many times. He liked it and cooked well. I didn't and cooked badly.

"Heh." His smirk was a mix of knowing humor and faux-contempt.

Winner and Merquise strolled in, helping themselves to the coffee first then dabbled in fruit and toast triangles.

Rashid entered with fresh cream and more toast.

"Anyone see signs of 'Ro or 'Fei being up?" Duo asked the room at large, but actually looked toward the Maguanac leader for an answer.

"Chang Wufei," Rashid said, "is in the gym and Heero Yuy is running laps around the inner compound."

"Ah, nuts. I was hoping they'd decided to stay in for a little between-the-sheet action."

The fluffy, black eyebrows drew down like storm clouds and sorrow washed the big man's face. "I am sorry to report quite the opposite. The two gentlemen respectfully slept on the floor-- on opposite sides of the bed."

Ah, jeez, I did not want to know the details, nor did I want to see Winner catch Rashid's attention and nod his curt little "do it" nod. Nor did I want to observe Rashid's answering nod, his stern acceptance of duty, and his resolute march out of the room. But so it happened. Wheels were set in motion, maneuvering behind-the-scenes intrigues; gears were turning somewhere, setting Winner-schemes in motion. Machinations within machinations. I looked for the nearest exit.

"Trowa? Duo? I'll need you to do something for me," Winner said, sealing all escape routes and my fate.

Duo did everything but wag his tail. He snapped at Winner's treats and barked, "You bet! Yep! Yip, yip, yip!"

He made me want to rub his belly and tell him "good boy!" Oh, I really didn't mind. This was the side of Duo that drove him to take care of me. His pack mentality, his desire to be a part of things and to please were part of his very desirable package. And he wasn't placed on Earth, or in the universe at large, to _just_ please me.

Throw him a bone, Winner, (and, in particular, not a boner) and I'll consider throttling you in your sleep, when Merquise isn't around to protect you. That put the threat safely into the fantasy realm, didn't it?

Winner drew himself up and looked very serious indeed. "I need you to carry out a little thievery."

"Pilfering was my first trade," Duo crowed, catching said bone on the opening toss.

Don't get too attached to that bone, lover of mine. "Is this going to be dangerous?" I asked the trainer.

"Why--- yes, possibly. If all goes well, Wufei and Heero will volunteer to do the guard duty, so you'll have to be very careful to outsmart them."

I groaned, hating the plan already. I could feel Yuy's knee to the groin, Chang's chop to the chops, pain in the dark. Give back that nasty bone!

"Them? No problem!" My sweetheart was nothing but a shining beacon of confidence and loyally. He dug in his heels and grinned maniacally, looking all the world as if he'd bite off any threatening hand in his personal space. "This will be fun."

Oh joy.

Winner's smile was blinding. "You're the best! I knew I could count on you. So, here they come. Just play along here and let them do the volunteering, not you, okay?"

"Yip!"

"Finally up, are you?" Chang said. "Fruit? A refreshing snack before lunch." He took a plate and a slice of cantaloupe and sat.

Yuy entered from the out-of-doors. After a quick examination of the food from twenty paces he chose a glass of juice. "I'll shower, unless there are plans for riding today."

There could be and no horses would even have to be involved.

Winner's eyes shot to the door as Amid scurried into the room. The man spoke to him in a hushed voice, pitched so that Chang could possibly catch a word or two, but none of the rest of us.

The little blonde's eyebrows turned down. "I see. That's terrible, but I don't blame you or the other men. You can't guard the house and me and the compound and the outer area day and night. It's just too bad to lose a little more history to armed gunmen."

Chang dropped his bare rind. "That is a travesty!" He stood. He always took a stance. "I could not help but overhear."

I'll bet.

"What?" Yuy punched in, always on the clock when he smelled gun oil.

"Brigands of the worst sort," Chang explained. "Desecrating archeological digs and disturbing the ancestors of this place."

The genius of Winner was to be admired. How did he know just exactly what would outrage and inspire the Chinese man to that degree?

"Why don't those armed men of yours do something about it?" Yuy asked, displaying caution and logic.

Winner shrugged ever so slightly, signaling his unwilling acceptance of the situation. "The Maguanacs feel terrible about this, but I must leave most of them on L4 to protect the Winner Company interests there, leaving the few here bound to my personal security."

"What's being stolen?" Yuy asked, a man restrained by practical matters.

"I'll show you."

We all followed him out of the dining room and into a study where a case of ugly painted clay figures stood in the corner. I didn't remember that being there yesterday, but I could have overlooked one of many in the room.

We all stared at case of artifacts. "They were fertility objects."

Fat naked women and squatty men, hung like elephants, rested in no particular order on the shelves.

"The site may have been a temple—"

That set off Chang like nothing else would have. "The injustice!" he shouted. "Where is this place? I see no reason for me to sleep in luxury while a temple is destroyed."

"He's right," Yuy concurred. "We can take over the guard duty."

"Really?" Oh, Winner's eyes sparkled and the birds sang the chorus. "I don't know, you are my guests."

"I insist," both the dupes said.

"Well, why don't we pack lunches and ride out for a look, anyway?"

"I'll pack a few things for myself," Chang said.

"I'll only need a change of underwear and ammunition," Yuy declared.

"I meant my sword and ammo." Chang honed his needs to the strictest and barest minimum.

Before they stripped down to their teeth and nails, I stepped in to bring to a close their needless macho posturing. I was sure there was plenty of raw, exposed rock to accommodate the both of them, but, I pointed out, "You'll need water."

"You the man, 'Tro!" Duo said and clapped me on the back.

I was, wasn't I?


	10. I Shall Never Be a Prisoner

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Ten—**

**I Shall Never Be a Prisoner**

* * *

Getting Duo on a horse was a near failure. "No way, Jose."

He did not want to miss out on the fact-finding mission, though, and eventually broke down and agreed, at last, to share my saddle. I was grateful we were both slim, but still it was a better idea in theory than in practice. Two asses plus one ass holder equaled one sure-as-hell tightass.

Winner, Merquise, and Yuy all rode as if they were born in a saddle. Chang looked stiff, but when wasn't he?

I learned to ride bareback in the circus and before that I rode with mercenaries, making me one with riding as a mode of transport in an age of space travel. Wasn't that anachronistic to some degree?

Duo had never before touched horseflesh and when meeting one for the first time kept both hands tucked away under his arms.

"Big." As he said that, his eyes enlarged to dinner plate size, which was bigger than big. I could tell the horse impressed him, even frightened him some.

"Yeah, this one is big enough to carry two men."

I climbed atop first and reached for his hand. "We'll share."

He smiled and clasped my hand and I pulled him up. Rashid pushed from below and stood by to make sure Duo wouldn't faint, I guess. The others had thoughtfully gone on ahead and not watched our floundering. I had appreciated the privacy, and I know Duo had too.

The ride lasted an hour or more. Being a first-timer, Duo would be sore later, but for the start he seemed to be having a good time.

"Different point of view from up here," he said.

"Yeah." I especially liked the feel of his warm back pressed to my chest; less the tickle of hair up my nose.

The sights were okay, we could both see them, so there was no use talking about them, until we passed the stable yard. After that, an entire panorama opened and opened and opened into a gorgeous vastness that being cooped up on a satellite or on a dingy colony made unfathomable.

"Jesus, 'Tro. Earth's one heck of a gorgeous place."

"Yeah." Made spectacular by having him to share it all with.

We rode across this, the lesser of Winner's estates, admiring the pastureland, miles of tall grass, and trees. Acres of them.

"What if life is one giant mathematical equation?" he asked, out of the blue, unless I'd missed what he'd been saying before that.

I considered his question a moment, then told him, "If it is, then there's an answer."

"Yeah," he said, twisting around so his braid slipped over my leg like a thick snake. "I like that idea. Everything works out in the end."

It would be nice if it did.

"You wanna tell me about the email you read this morning?" he asked, again out of the blue-with-white-fluffy-clouds sky. This time his expression was speculative—not annoyed or pushy.

I did not really want to expose my disappointment, but, I needed to. The school I ended up attending would mean a life change for Duo as well, since he wanted to go wherever I went. "No word from my top choice, but one of the least spectacular schools approved me."

"Well, that's good; at least you got that to plan around."

"I'll try to work up enthusiasm for that one in case I get no other offers."

He had a long-winded way of telling me I was damned lucky to get to go to school and have a hot guy like him to sleep with and who liked to cook. Didn't I know it? He intended it all to come off in a playful way. He wanted me to appreciate what I had and cheer up. He threw in how lucky he knew he was to have me as well with a firm enough conviction to convince me he did really mean it.

I hugged him and nuzzled his sun-roasted hair. "I know." I told him. "But right now I can't get past having some guy's sexy ass grinding between my thighs."

He flung back his head so he was looking upside down at me and laughed.

We were still laughing when we reached the pit. It looked to me more like a construction site than a ruin, and I was right.

"We were building a new research center, starting with this site, when the first relic was discovered," Winner told those of us who were listening. Chang was leaping from rock to rock like a mountain goat, stooping to examine the intervening rubble. "Work stopped until a team of researchers could evaluate the find."

"What was the analysis?" Yuy asked.

"It's not complete." Winner gestured to the expansive crater. "It's all happened very recently. It could take months to get a final report."

"So until then, your operation is shut down?"

"Yes, I wasn't enthusiastic about building this close to my home anyway, so it's all right."

"I found one!" Chang shouted.

We all dashed over to where he stood knee deep in debris halfway down the side of a cliff. We looked down, and over.

"I found one of those figures."

"Man or woman?" Yuy asked.

"Man-- I think," he said.

"He couldn't tell the difference? No wonder he's single," Duo shared with me.

"Don't bother coming here," Chang yelled while flapping his arms about, to chase us off, I guess. "I'm coming up."

I don't think any of us had considered risking a broken ankle to meet him in the pit.

Yuy appropriated the artifact the moment Chang showed up with it. Even I could see it had a penis the size of its arm. "Looks like the others," he said. "Winner? You said this place might have been a temple? Temple to what?"

To what, indeed? How much background had Winner prepared for this insane plan of his?

Merquise motioned for silence with an elegant hand. I kept forgetting him and knew I would regret underestimating his abilities one of these days. "The indigenous people of this land created fertility dolls to bring them rich harvests. There's a stunning documentary on the ethnicity and cultural significance based on complete—"

It looked to be building up to another monologue of monumental proportions, but this time Duo and I weren't the ones to have to hear it. "Time to depart." I led the horse around, found a rock for him to stand on, and got him seated before mounting behind him. We listened a few moments longer as I walked the horse to the path.

"Is this valuable, you think?" Chang looked at the god-awful doll trying to see value in it, I think.

"What matters is how it makes you feel each time you look at it or hold it in your hands. Does the piece 'speak' to you? If you like it, if it does speak to you in some way, it's worth won't really matter, you will always enjoy it and you won't be disappointed."

The prince was good at this subterfuge, I had to admit.

"So there's a film on the people that made these things?" Yuy asked.

"Yes, as I started to say. I understand that the archival content alone is worth the viewing time with at least twenty hours of translated field research on the religion, rituals, art, medicine, law—"

"Law?" Chang asked, totally falling under the spell of the spiel.

"Yes, hours on that alone," Merquise assured him.

We left them in discussion, Yuy and Chang insisting that they stay the night. I wanted to get back to the ranch, eat, and get Duo's sore ass into the warm pool; although, I moved eating to the end of the list the closer we got to our destination.

By the time we dropped off the horse at the stable, the only way I could get Duo to walk was to entice him with promises of a "warm spa with bubbles." And he made it to the water, evading the additional hike to the pool house, which told me how much he had to be hurting to ignore his empty stomach and his inhibitions. He dropped his clothes where he stood, "Don't need no dressing room," and eased his small self into the gigantic hot tub connected to the massive swimming pool.

I combined the circulating heat of the water with some rather knowledgeable massage techniques to soothe his riding muscles, taking my time to enjoy his pale, silky skin. He was unearthly in so many ways. He was unaccustomed to the great open expanses, horseback riding, and direct, unfiltered, straight-from-the-source sunlight.

"Not much longer or you'll burn," I warned him.

"Blistered and burned, welcome to Earth, eh?"

"Just take it slower."

"Um, 'Tro? You gonna take care of my other problem?"

"Another one's _arisen_?"

"Heh, heh, oh—"

"I'm lucky you learned to swim as some point in your life," I said, my massaging fingers becoming deeply personal.

"L4 visiting Quat required swimming in pools. A couple brave Maguanacs t-tahh-aught me."

"Uh, huh." I fingered and stretched him a little more then moved him to my lap. He was weightless; impaling him was effortless. Pool sex is something like zero-G sex in that way.

"Oh, ho, oooweee! That's interesting."

He went incoherent after that. The feel of his tight heat contracting around me totally killed my stamina. Five minutes from start to finish. But five minutes of loving Duo was just fucking amazing, literally. We floated a bit, spent, and contented, and then we wrapped up in towels. I scooted a pair of lounge chairs to the shade and there we collapsed.

"Like a pair of sea lions snoozing under a pier," he said.

"Better than week-old, beached whales."

"God, no kidding!" He made a face. "Rotten image to put in my head, lover."

"How about lunch?"

"You are warped."

"So's space." I chuckled and got up, re-securing the towel at my waist in case we got company. I recovered our packed lunches from my pack, which I'd dropped with my pants earlier, and tottered back to the "wharf." He watched me rather deliberately.

I asked, "What's your point?"

"I forgot. You're more interesting. You move so… fluidly."

That sent the blood to my cheeks. He must have enjoyed his effect on me, so he added, "Like a big graceful cat."

When our eyes met I realized he was waiting for me to connect the dots to his point. If I un-jumbled all his odd comments, I'd discover an embedded joke. Big cats, fluidly… oh, I got it: lions plus water made _sea_ _lions_. We were sea lions.

I groaned and told him he was awful, which he loved, and then passed him his share of lunch. As we fortified ourselves, Winner and his prince joined us with glasses and a pitcher of Margaritas.

"Well, that's done," Winner said. "They should be good for a few hours. Then, you can take them dinner and wait until dark and then—here's a diagram of where some treasures are hidden for you to haul away. Make lots of obvious marks of having been there for them to find… evidence and all—"

"Waitaminute," Duo said. "I'm not riding a damned horse again today."

"Of course not-- not in the dark," Winner assured him. "You'll take the jeep."

Duo emptied one drink down his throat, and then looked at me through the bottom of his glass. "You'll be driving," he said, and then he filled another glass to the brim. "I'm entering the 'forgetting' phase of my day."

Double joy, he was giving me his "watch this," hooded eye-wink. I prepared to be amused.

"I'm just feeling too loose to trek," he said.

Winner grimaced. Duo had told me the old war story of being subjected to a day at the L4 art museum with Winner, leading to his first telling of this joke—just silly word-play, but unadulterated Duo. Apparently it was new to Merquise, because he questioned the connection.

"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec?" Merquise asked. He fell for it, God love him. "Why would you be channeling that particular French painter?"

Ah, being the butt of the gag. I let his lover break it gently to him, while I took a look at his diagram of the ruin area and Duo pretended to sleep. There was the "loot" for us to tote away; there was where our favorite guards were encamped; and there was the back road leading to town, giving us an alternative route back to the estate. We'd see who got the last laugh in the end, but I hoped it would be Duo and me.


	11. ‘Tween steel and glass and stone

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Eleven—**

'**Tween steel and glass and stone**

* * *

Freshly scrubbed and shampooed Duo lolled over the bed, his loose hair fanned out over the edge to dry out. I was resting on a chair, pulled up to the bed with my legs stretched over the mattress. The door and window were open and the early evening breeze tugged at wisps.

For the first time in days we weren't in physical contact; well, just my foot against his hip. And that wasn't really true because we'd been apart during the telling of "the prince and the corporate head" romance story and bathroom breaks, but the point was that Duo insisted on some contact and I loved it.

I watched him over my book. My hair was dry. I had it trimmed regularly, even the bangs, though I still kept them chin length. But his hair was incredible.

It wasn't just the length that amazed me. Chang still wore his jet-black, shoulder-length hair pulled tight as an onion skin and tied off at the nap of his neck. I'd never seen it loose. Merquise no longer wore his platinum mane to his ass, but kept it just below his shoulder-blades and drawn back into a loose ponytail. Winner was neat as a pin, perfectly groomed, making Yuy and his untamed, dark mop look all the more rakish.

Duo, though, had so much hair, and as he aged it wasn't only on his head. He had furry legs, giving him soft edges. He said my hair was the color of caramel candy and he once tried to kiss all my freckles. I'd told him he'd never be able to get them all because new ones appeared when I got into the sun. He said I could try and keep up by kissing all his hair. I'd never reach the end. Maybe that was the point?

I reached to switch on the lamp, the room too dark to read any more, and then changed my mind. The setting sun glinted off his hair at that moment, burnishing the brown locks with copper and gold. Yards of it.

And then I was on my knees, burying my hands in that hair, my face finding his forehead under a thick fringe. I worshiped him with my lips. This gorgeous man spread naked on my bed smiling in contentment because I was touching him, loving him—how could it be true?

Then he groaned. "No sex. My thighs ache like I've been spread all day."

"Fuck _me_ then."

One somersault onto the bed, over him, dragging him over me, sliding under him, and there was nothing but that hair tenting me, tickling my chest and arms and legs, brushing my erection—all that hair and his deep, rolling chuckles when I moaned and whimpered. I couldn't help it. When he touched me sound erupted from deep inside. I said things. I begged and cried and completely fell apart when he entered me and pounded my prostate. The words I held back, my reticence to speak my mind, the love I stockpiled away, it all gave way when we made love.

"Love you, 'Tro, when you let loose like that. You just can't imagine how much."

Yes, I can.

(o)

"This'll be a piece of cake," Duo said, oozing self-confidence.

"More like chicken curry and rice."

He looked at the bag of food on his lap, dinner delivery for Yuy and Chang, and made a face. "Don't go literal on me. We drop this off, chat a bit, then go—"

"_Pretend_ to go," I corrected.

"We actually GO but turn back and go around to the other road—"

"A road which is invisible in the dark," I said, pointing out the problem. "There aren't street lights out here. I hope we don't break an axle."

"That would put the "shaft" firmly into getting fucked, wouldn't it?"

I smiled. "Yes."

"Which is why we got that crate'o'crap from Quat. Night vision goggles, flashlights—"

"Have you ever wondered what he needs with all that equipment he has stowed away?" I asked. "Winner could supply a small army."

"He does—his Maguanacs remember?"

"Oh, yeah." How could I forget that the men arranging flowers and food for the "young master" were really Winner's privately armed corps?

"He still has the layouts, diagrams, and plans to build a Gundam and the Zero system, not to mention the financing and manufacturing plants to do it," he went on. "I'd say Quat could take over the world, if he wanted."

"And he's got half the Peacecraft inheritance and a trained military colonel sucking his dick," I mused. "Best we stay on the fellow's good side."

Duo chuckled. "Yeah, all right. So back to the plan. I'm not so sure about how we're supposed to make enough noise to alert them but not have them breathing down our necks."

Them? Yuy and Chang. More like at our necks. It made me think of a lion attack.

"Hey, lover, they may think they're hot stuff, but you have the advantage of knowing you are, because I say so."

That got me to smile.

"They may try to dominate, but you're never bossy around people and that makes you likeable. Just be confident and be relaxed. If you get bored, then talk about the things that interest you."

"You interest me."

Duo rolled his eyes and smiled, "Well, then shit. Talk about me, heh, heh."

I spotted their lantern glowing up ahead and pointed them out. "We'll have to move fast to get away," I said.

"Yuy moves fast. Chang faster. We'll have to move lickety-split on ice."

"I brought some rope."

Duo moved to catch my eyes for a moment. "You have an idea to buy us some time? Good. Knew I could count on you."

Always, love.

There was nothing interesting about shoving a sack of food at the two gullible souls. The entire venture stunk of "setup" to me, so much so I wondered how both men accepted it at all, but then I knew it was one. Or maybe it was the food smelling up the place?

They plowed through the food and I noticed they sat a little closer together than necessary and didn't wince when I leaned over and kissed Duo for no reason except I could. Oh, yeah, there was some showing off involved, very out of character for me, and I bet Duo would bring that up later, in private.

Over a dessert of rich cookies, Chang updated us on the curious coyote and scurrying mouse activity. Since nothing more exciting had happened at the site, according to Yuy, conversation lagged then dwindled then dropped off to an extended silence Duo couldn't put up with.

"Well, I gotta good book back at my room so see ya later?" he announced.

For a moment, I was afraid Chang would jump at the chance to return to his book of choice and ask to return with us. When his eyes betrayed his thoughts and slid sideways to catch a glimpse of Yuy, I knew the attraction was for real.

"I'm feeling lucky tonight," Yuy said.

I'll bet you are.

"Justice will be served," Chang declared.

Or serviced.

Or both.

We returned to the jeep and the road we came in on. "There's the turn off," Duo said. He was wearing the goggles with the glow of red and I trusted him as I shut off the headlights.

"Chang didn't put up much of an argument when Winner told him his night-vision equipment was all in use," I noted.

"He was ogling 'Ro's ass at the time, did ya notice? He's sunk if Heero doesn't feel that "gay" is his orientation."

"Oh, I think he's tilting Chang's way just fine," I said. Squinting into the darkness and doing my best to avoid colliding with boulders. "See anything yet? The bunker of booty ought to be around here."

Duo swept the area a couple times, scanning for clues; I drove, inching along another foot or so then he spotted the cache. "Stop."

This was the tricky part of the operation, but he and I were skilled at stealth. While I used my rope and some sticks and boxes I found to rig up a plausible distraction, Duo explored the shallow cave, found the "treasure", and moved it to the jeep. The difficulty in carrying this out was magnified by the need for absolute silence so we wouldn't set off any of Yuy's mental perimeter alarms. Not actual ones, because-- conveniently for us, tragically for the two guardians of the dump-- Winner had been "tragically" out of all his portable surveillance equipment. Again, I wondered how Yuy's suspicions hadn't been triggered.

Thumbs up and ready to get the hell outta there, we both jumped aboard the jeep, and I started the motor. We had no more than a minute before they could reach this location on foot. "Cut the rope when you hear it dragging stuff," I whispered.

I knew Duo well enough to be certain he had a knife on him. I floored the accelerator. The rope drew taut then there was scraping, a crash, and more crashes as boxes and rocks fell over in the cave, and then more scraping for a second… and then just the sound of our engine.

"Free," I heard next to my ear so close it tickled.

I drove into a shallow, rock lined gulch, currently a dry creek, then out the other side. At the top of the ridge, I spun the wheel, braked, and gunned it in a new direction a few yards onto the back road then stopped. "Cover the tracks."

He got the idea and for thirty seconds we shoved rocks and brush over the new turn we'd taken out of the gully. It's possible they'd assume that the robbers took the creek route out. Possible.

After that we high-tailed it to town.

"Wowee! That went smooth!"

Duo was charged up and ready to bar hop, but I convinced him we should get the jeep and the telltale evidence to the proposed meeting spot, as per Winner's plans.

"You always were a rule follower," he said.

"Religiously," I agreed in jest. "That's how I got so far in life. Keep an eye out for the Oasis."

He was first to see the lurid signage. I parked illegally in a handicapped space, leaving the engine running outside the nightclub, proving I wasn't a conformist. I didn't see any Maguanacs lurking about, but I knew they'd show when the time was right.

"Maybe I got time to go in and grab us a couple brews?" Duo asked, mostly to fill air space, was my guess because we'd already had that discussion and he'd agreed to stay put. "Ah, here comes Siraj. He wears the striped vest, see?"

"Okay. Who's the other one?"

"Um, I dunno." Duo squinted to find something remarkable about the man to identify him in the dim light.

"It's Amid, the floral artist, remember him?"

"Oh, yeah?" He winked at me. "I was mostly looking elsewhere," he said, concentrating his attention out the window at the two men approaching the jeep.

Yeah, Yuy.

"I didn't know you could mix up flowers that way." His eyes slid over to meet mine then to my lips and back up. "Trowa Barton, a man of many hidden talents."

Me?

The rear of the Jeep opened and we both got out.

"This all?" Amid asked me as they each balanced boxes on crates to carry away.

"Yeah," Duo said. "Need a hand?"

At that moment, one box slipped and fell onto the concrete. Something spilled out.

I swept up the artifact while Duo secured the box again and walked the two men around the corner where their getaway car awaited them. When he returned I started the jeep.

"Two more Maguanacs were there talking to a bunch of rough-looking characters. What do you think they got up their caftans now?"

"More robberies? I'm sure Winner will let us know soon enough."

"Yep." He picked up the hideous little figure. "This is what dropped? Ugly as sin itself, but it's not cracked, just some chipped paint. What should we do with it?" he asked.

I examined the figure under the internal car light. "Hide it. Look."

He rotated the object then chuckled. "Made in China? Where do you think Winner got all these things on such short notice? Shit, if Chang saw this---?"

"He would be insulted to the core."

"God, Tro', I hope this plan doesn't fizzle. I hope it all works out for them."

"Me, too."

"They will fucking kill us for interfering like this. Man, maybe we outta cut and run now while we can?"

Shoring up a tentative relationship, not my own, was not my strong suit. I had a gift for disappearing into the woodwork, not building anything. Duo, my lifeline, had a way of making molehills out of mountains, which was not a building exercise at all and didn't fit my metaphor very well, but it was true.

"It'll be okay. We haven't done anything they can pin on us. Winner'll take the heat if it fails," I said with more self-confidence than I had any reason to feel.

But Duo was cool with it. "Yeah, and he's got Merquise as an excuse—brain failure."

We drove by a fast food restaurant, through the drive-thru, bought sodas, and chucked the cheap trinket into the garbage.

Out of sight, out of mind, out of trouble.


	12. And If I Leave I Will Return Home

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Twelve—**

**And If I Leave I Will Return Home **

* * *

I got into my first choice of colleges. Accepted.

I understood that correctly on the tenth read-through of the email. Accepted. And I had another attachment telling me they wanted me so much, I was being offered a full scholarship to attend. Accepted. Full Scholarship. What a way to wake up.

"So?" Duo entered the room. He'd given me a few minutes of privacy, to read the news, digest it, and find a way to tell him what it meant to us.

"I-I…" I swallowed and let the smile take over my face like it wanted. "I got in. I'll be studying to be a shuttle engineer."

Duo flung himself into my arms, crushed me with his legs wrapped around my waist, made me certain he was as thrilled as I was.

"I'll be your test pilot whenever you need one," he promised. Now that was trust.

"So, I guess we'll go to Sanc." I couldn't believe it yet.

"Long time no see," he said. "It'll be cool to see how it's changed since the war."

I got into my first choice school, paid for, and I had a red-hot lover, who I adored, in my arms. I'd never been happier. Things had never been so perfect.

He cuddled around me more. "You know, I liked being manhandled in front of those uptight, alpha Asians." He hadn't forgotten. "Usually it's me claiming you and sometimes I wonder if I go a little overboard."

"You? Extravagant?"

"Ha, ha. Yeah, me, Mr. Outgoing."

"You're not flamboyant about us, though," I said. He never flaunted his sexuality or pawed me in public.

"I'm no flamer, no. But you're every bit the pilot they are, the fighter they are, the tough guy. You're also a hunk and a fantastic lover."

Aw, geez…

He laughed at my blushing over his compliments. "All I'm saying is if you wanna show some affection and," his hands moved over my back, down my sides, and past my drawstring pants to correctly locate my erection, "some aggression and claim over me, go right ahead."

"Rub it in?" I wondered if there wasn't a little "see what you're missing, Yuy?" in what he was saying.

"That a kinky new way to ask if I'll bottom for you?"

Okay. I liked that a whole lot better than where my mind had taken me. "Would you?"

"How about later tonight in order to give my saddle-sores longer to heal and I'll treat you to--?"

"Anything," I said with a sigh. Anything Duo did would be great.

"You got it, college-boy."

I'd take his loving anytime, but then I wanted to know what he had in mind for a job in the big city-state of Sanc.

(o)

Winner insisted on a celebratory luncheon, all for me, so that afternoon Yuy and Chang were dragged back with an official changing of the guard and the assurance that "nothing ever happens, except at night."

Oh yes, the "raid" the night before was discussed.

"I _could_ have tracked the vehicle further _had_," Chang said, looking accusingly at Rashid, "your _men_," who in turn looked like he might object had he not been responsible for destroying the evidence purposely, "not _trampled_ the area."

"My apologies. They were so very excited, I'm afraid," was all Rashid could spit out with a straight face. He exited stage right grinning from ear to ear.

Chang was not done. "They tried to drag it away—"

"The site? Isn't that rather large and impossible to--?" Duo asked with a deliciously innocent expression.

"Not the site, you dolt! The plundered treasure!"

"Did they leave any of it behind?" Duo asked.

"No," Chang said, his face souring so that it resembled a balled up sheet of paper, while Duo and I exchanged "thank God" expressions, recalling the "Made in China" marking on the damaged piece. "They got away with it all then even destroyed the cave they'd looted."

Yuy growled and brandished an evil-looking handgun that couldn't possibly be Preventers-issued, unless they, too, were developing a small army. "We will be prepared for them tonight." And the deadly glimmer from Yuy's eyes made me shudder; the way he sighted an imaginary enemy along the gun's barrel made my blood run cold. Either my body was sending out "fear" signals, or I was coming down with a cold.

I thought about those poor thugs, the ones Duo saw the Maguanacs talking to near the Oasis. If they were thinking they'd drive to the site, pick up a few boxes, and drive away tonight, God help them! Yuy and Chang would reduce them to grease spots. I knew then that Duo and I would have another loads'o'fun night ahead of us. My perfect day over so soon.

Note to self: enjoy every good moment to the fullest, because it always seems like something is prepared to come along and leave it gutted at your feet.

Winner must have thought along a similar, panic-laden "m'aidez" vein, because he spiked their drinks and fed them over-rich food. Duo, who has no resistance when it comes to spectacular layouts of food at his finger tips, stuffed himself to the sleep-it-off stage, too. What this meant was we got a late start getting Yuy and Chang ready to return to the site.

While they went to replenish their Spartan camp and grudgingly collect a few more supplies from Winner's store like more blankets and, I noticed, underwear and jackets, I plucked Duo to the side. If ever a plan needed to pull a _Deus ex machina_ out of nowhere to fix this mess before someone got killed, it was now—and it was me, I guessed. Duo understood the mounting danger and a game gone awry. He listened to my end game proposal, improved it within his area of expertise, and agreed it would work.

Next, we had to get Rashid on board. Duo rounded him up and we outlined our dilemma. "Yuy's got something planned, which means it's going to get a lot more dangerous out there," I warned Rashid.

"I feared it would come to this," he said solemnly.

"If you have an operation in process," I said, "you and your corps better prepare to bail."

"Yeah, he and Chang are going to be packing, and I'm talking weaponry. So, if you can keep 'em on the run, 'Tro an' I'll blow up the place and call it 'mission over and out'."

Rashid nodded. "I agree. Master Winner has achieved his goal, I understand, inasmuch as it can be accomplished."

"In as much—yeah." I smiled and then we briefly formulated a new plan of action.

(o)

Yuy and Chang would get back to the site of Winner's dig in time to find that the place had already been looted, or was in the last steps of being looted by a gang of twenty hoodlums. Plenty, Rashid had thought, to give them a challenge and a chase-- and less able to do permanent harm, after he'd replaced Yuy and Chang's ammunition with blanks, at some cost to his personal safety.

Duo and I were at the site, setting charges to blow it up, something I hadn't done in years and, I discovered, something which thrilled my lover more than it should.

"My pulse is up here," Duo said, grabbing at his throat.

"Just make sure you _keep_ your pulse," I said with a pointed cautionary note to it. I fumbled with the packaging on the C-4 composition, labeled "Plastico SP300" from Italy. "I'm doing this right, aren't I? I don't want to make a mistake with this shit."

"Don't worry," he told me right off. "This is a relatively new, very stable product with improved plasticizers to decrease the sensitivity. I don't touch the volatile stuff anymore." He checked over the explosives and fuse I'd placed, and nodded. "Haven't lost your touch, love," he assured me before moving on to set his next charge.

We heard feet racing toward us—not boots, Maguanac slipper-clad feet—so I stepped out to intercept the runner. "Yo!"

"Yuy and Chang," the poor man huffed out, breathing heavily. "They have tracked down and caught all the robbers and are heading back to here to look things over."

"Rashid's holding the robbers, then? Everyone okay?" Duo asked.

"Yes, yes! All okay, but you must go, go fast!"

"You too," Duo told him and showed him the direction to take. "You'll have time to safely get behind that ridge. This place blows in thirty seconds."

"The humvee is there. I'll be okay!" he said, but he was running full tilt to clear the area.

We hadn't time to both light the fuse and make it to the car.

We ran to the car. As I cranked the engine, Duo pulled a grenade from his pocket, grinned as he pulled the pin, and threw it in the direction of the largest explosive dump.

"Whooooeeee!" Duo crowed all the way to the gully, that place again, which was low with a hill between us and the site.

I could hear the explosions and see flashes of light. Duo was twisted around screaming and whooping it up. He really liked blowing things up, I guessed. Bits of wood and rock rained down on the roof of the Jeep.

Duo looked up at the dented roof. "Maguanacs get humvees? We shoulda too."

"Yes." We could have used an armored vehicle with flare/smoke launchers, modified turret shield, and a full-sized bed. "Let's get that drink at the Oasis this time," I suggested.

Duo agreed. "An overdue celebration."

I wasn't sure about celebrating yet. I was still working on the calming my nerves and forgetting part.


	13. On the Wings of an Eagle

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of Snowdragon and WaterLily for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Thirteen—**

**On the Wings of an Eagle **

* * *

I'd made it a point to stay out late to miss the homecoming, head banging, and final-result-taking of the Mission: Yuy-Chang get together, and had the Oasis been a gay bar Duo and I might have been tempted to hang out until morning. But it was straight up and not seedy enough for us, so we used the men's room to clean up.

Getting the smell of explosives, smoke, and dust out of Duo's hair, unobtrusively, was more of a challenge than I'd wanted though. I didn't have to love everything about him to be in love. Still, we did a fair job, stuck around long enough to let the stale cigarette smoke permeate our hair and clothes, had a couple beers, and then wove our way back to the Big "W" ranchero.

Guards greeted us with elation and rushed us into the mansion and to the dimly lit smoking room where everyone else was still gathered. There was definitely a funereal feel about the place.

"Somebody die?" I asked.

Nobody got my humor, except Duo, who chuckled and tagged on, "Since it's none of you, I got my money on some old geezer like Howard? How'd I do? Am I right?"

C'mon guys, laugh! You know he's joking; Howard's an old buddy of his. Maybe they were too tired?

Chang was quick to correct him. "Wrong as usual, Maxwell. That comes from formulating opinions before obtaining all the facts. Something I noticed you've done all the time I've known you."

Oh, shit. I could feel Duo bristle through his shirt pressed against my back. "Is that so?" Duo ground out in a very low voice, rumbling into my chest.

"We have news." Merquise actually stepped in to establish the peace. That felt _all_ wrong, considering who he was. The only "peace" in Zechs Merquise had been dropped with "Peacecraft' name, right? But the past was past. I sure didn't want to be held accountable for what I'd had to do as a fifteen-year old, so it was time to adapt to this new man. "Let me illuminate the newcomers," he said.

I dialed up the dimmer switch on the light, commenting, "Just doing my part."

The prince and I shared a smile and he nodded my way. I'd been acknowledged. Officially. "Please, your may call me Zechs," he said.

Well, I might.

He went on to acquaint us with his observations made at a comfortable distance-- from what was probably the backseat of a limo.

The robbers were many, the pursuers, few. Chang was a blur of Kung-fu kicks, drilled into him from birth, and fine swordsmanship. Yuy, Merquise explained, combined the strangulation and pinning moves of Jujutsu with good, old, western-style, kick-ass gun-slinging.

He made me sorry to have missed the show, nearly.

Yuy and Chang tried to look unaffected, as if "it was nothing," but they basked like lounge lizards in the glow of the limelight of simulated-success.

We all agreed the destruction was "too bad" and mourned "the loss" of the antiquities as yet unfound—oh yes, and the keys to a civilization lost to history, thank you, Winner-- as Rashid described the damage to the site. After that, the head Maguanac took his turn at championing the cause.

"You missed a great show," Rashid said.

Duo sighed, "Aw, shucks."

"It was a lesson in technique for the corps. How magnificently the crack team of Yuy and Chang tracked down the vandalizing violators to the man! My people had only to tie up the despoilers and take them away."

Damned sorry I missed that.

What I didn't miss was how Yuy's hand linked with Chang's. Contact! Thank God.

(o)

Winner Corporation owned many buildings, and one of them was a newly built condo complex walking distance to the University of Sanc. For fun, Winner proposed we all take a group road trip to the university to look around and check out the condo, just in case it might work for Duo and me. His idea of fun and mine were markedly different.

Duo was full of fun ideas of his own, the road trip being his jumping off spot. He insisted on a limousine. Okay, Winner allowed that for the two hour drive. Drinks and food on board. Okay, that wasn't much.

His choice of music.

Now that ended up being a point of contention for miles. And miles. Chang had his preferences, Winner his, Duo, obviously had his. Merquise was in control and simply switched genres every so often. Surprisingly, Yuy and I didn't care. He seemed as amused as I over Duo and Chang's piss-off match.

"Classic has stood the test of time." Winner contended.

Duo "tsked," and then said, "Belongs back in the moldering archives like the name says."

"Rap is not even music," Chang snapped back.

"You are not even listening!" Duo moaned.

"It's nothing but beat!" Winner declared, unfairly, I'd say.

"Primal!" Duo growled.

"Primitive!" Chang sneered.

"Hot and sexy," Duo purred, curling into my side.

"You sure are," I said, but so very, very quietly I'm certain only he heard me. Oh so very sexy. If anything was one hundred percent about me, it was my sex drive. It was set on cruise all the way and overdrive when Duo was sitting this close, practically on my lap.

Getting off the meds, painkillers, and mood stabilizers contributed to my awakening libido; but, God, Duo Maxwell could bring the dead to life. I ought to know. This time with him was an entirely new start for me. I'd seen the end, or close to it, and now it was full of opportunity and hope. God help me when Duo meets someone better.

The music got louder, drowning them out and the drive resumed a kind of peaceful "fun-ness." I had an arm around Duo Maxwell and he had a hand on my thigh. We were a couple, accepted by our friends who were themselves just beginning their own startling relationships.

After the war, the rather quaint Sanc Kingdom on Earth had been replaced with the hulking city-state of Sanc. Governments changed with the times, substituting costly Princes and Princesses with ponderous layers of bureaucracy. At least they were too busy regulating and establishing processes to effect anything meaningful.

What hadn't changed was the University in the center of the city. Zechs Merquise, we discovered, had attended the law college until he had been transferred to the military academy. He pointed out the law building as we passed by.

"You might consider going back for your law degree, if you'd like," Winner suggested.

"Or art, something cultural," Zechs chuckled. "Wouldn't that leave a few people speechless, having to critique my art in class?" He cleared his throat and tried pitching it higher. "What's the symbolism behind the mask in your painting, Mr. Merquise, or should I call you--?" His voice returned to normal and he held up a hand to his imaginary fellow student. "No, please, Zechs will do." He laughed more and I did too. "No, mixing with the army or the elite is fine, but not with the masses, not anymore."

"You could fit in if you tried and if you changed your name and dyed your hair," Yuy said. "You've done it effectively before."

Indeed, he had, but he simply shook his head and sat back, Winner's hand in his. Now there was a man who would understand the problems of _noblesse oblige_, and how their behavior must conform to their position and earned reputation. Not my problem or even in my _realm_ of problems.

Chang, I noticed, was glassy-eyed, absorbing in the sights with increasing intensity. Yuy elbowed him, asking, "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing! I've never seen a campus so large. That building, it says "library" and it stands, what, ten stories high? More? It's just magnificent."

He looked at me as if to say, "How is it you deserve this?" What he said was, "I envy you."

Me? I was nothing; "No name," surely. "I just applied. I'm nothing special."

"Piffle! You were a mechanic before you were a pilot and probably know more than half the staff here about Gundam technology."

My heart started pounding. Compliments made me insecure, but coming from Chang Wufei, I felt what he'd said was undoubtedly true. If he continued to warm up, I might have to call him by his first name, too.

Duo squeezed my hand and said, "Yeah, Tro's really smart. He could've done anything, but picked space engineering over physical fitness stuff. And we can afford it since we're veterans we get benefits."

"What?" That came in a chorus of questioning voices.

Duo explained about what the good doctor had discovered when I was injured, how the health care was partially funded, and the education.

"Even re-training?" Chang wondered.

"If it's classes and a degree, yeah." Duo leaned forward and touched Chang's knee. We both jumped, for different reasons. "You were a scholar once, weren't you?"

"Yes. There was a time when the act of killing people was the furthest thing from my mind. I was pursuing a career in Ancient History."

"You could finish your studies," Duo suggested.

Heero looked unhappy, glaring hard enough to make me pull Duo back into his seat, securing him in my arms.

"I have a job, a duty to perform! I can't drop everything and take up books again."

"Sure ya can," Duo kicked in. "I bet you can get it all paid for, so you don't need a job. Quat here's got a place you can hang out in. Hey, I bet with a little encouragement you can talk Yuy into shacking up and sharing the rent."

Yuy's breath hitched in surprise, shock even.

Duo may have been right, but he was embarrassing the hell out of the other two men, not yet ready to "shack up" under any circumstances. Winner was right--this _was_ fun. And Duo wasn't even done.

"I can teach you to cook," he told Heero, poking his knee. _Seriously_, he said that. "I'm a great housemate, aren't I, 'Tro?"

"Yes, you are."

"I want to get out and walk around," Chang demanded.

So we did.

The campus covered acres and we traversed most of it, stopping to eat twice. I was really too excited to absorb much of where we were, what was happening, or food, but Duo insisted we sample the local rations, and no one stopped him.

The only one that wasn't having a good time was Yuy, and he definitely looked glum. It occurred to me that he was worried Chang would leave his job, and Yuy, behind, and for the first time in years I felt sorry for the guy. I'd feel bad if Duo wasn't joining me in my new adventure. Not bad, devastated.

I wasn't the only one aware of Yuy's gloomy mood. I noticed Merquise keeping an eye on him, when he wasn't keeping both eyes glued firmly to his little blond boyfriend. I watched as he pulled Yuy to the side in a coffee shop. Duo and Winner were exchanging desserts, testing four different kinds. Both men had a terrible sweet tooth for sugary treats, and were coaxing Chang into tasting also and helping them judge which was best, something he liked to do, I guessed. I edged closer to the window and there I caught a bit of what Merquise was saying.

"I can understand your concern. You are starting out and are worried about losing what you've just found."

Yuy nodded, "Hn."

"You know, Preventers is headquartered here. I can't imagine you being unable to get a transfer to any one of five offices within ten miles of where we are standing now. Think about it."

It was then that I could see the possibility of Zechs Merquise becoming a friend. He impressed me. How many times had this man re-invented himself? Like a phoenix from the fire? I liked this new man who was devoted to Quatre Winner, and I wondered how long they would last.

How long did anything last? Some morning, Duo could wake up and say, "Damn! Isn't it about time the circus left town?" And he'd be gone. Take flight as if on the wings of an eagle and be gone.

Aim high, but make the most of what there was now. I promised myself to live a little happier, believing that.


	14. I'm Flying Again

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

**Sequel to For a Lark**

Summary: When Trowa Barton and Duo Maxwell pay Quatre Winner a visit, he coerces them into archeological site destruction and matchmaking

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Story and chapter titles from the song_ On The Wings Of An Eagle_, by John Denver.

A/N: My deepest thanks go to the kindness of WaterLily and Snowdragon for editing and encouraging me to complete this.

**Warnings:** AU, male/male pairings, language

**On the Wings of an Eagle**

—**Chapter Fourteen—**

**I'm Flying Again**

* * *

"What does Catherine think about all this?" Winner asked. We were on our way to the condominium. "She must be proud of you."

"You're assuming I told her anything."

"You haven't? She's your sister, Trowa! I would think you'd keep her informed of what was going on in your life."

I guess his family did that sort of thing. Problem was, I'd never had family like that.

"Maybe you do that, but not me," I said and as a result, he looked hurt. The truth hurts. "Listen, Catherine's not my sister, okay? She just lost her family, including a younger brother, in the war. It was just a coincidence that I showed up when I did and had enough of a family resemblance to make her believe it was possible."

He blinked. I guess I did rant on a bit. "But it is possible?" he asked.

I shrugged indifference. "As much as I could be related to Duo or Heero for that matter."

Duo, who had been sharing hair tips (don't tell him I said that) with Zechs, of course, heard that part and entered the conversation. "Eww! No way."

Winner smiled and shook his head. "I wouldn't worry." He turned his frown back to me. "But Catherine is probably worried about you, then, if she hasn't heard a word--."

"I called her," Duo said as casually as he'd say "I ordered a soda."

"You did?" I was more surprised than upset. He hadn't told me any of this. Not that it mattered. Everyone else had stopped talking and now they were looking at us, mostly at him for his explanation.

"I wanted to know if she wanted any of the furniture back and she said no and asked why and I said we were Earth-bound and she asked how 'Trowie' was and I said walking and that's the way I was going to keep him so no more lions thank you very much and she said okay and I said you were going to college and—" he paused to catch his breath, "—she asked who? And I said Tro' and then I had to go and said bye and that was that."

"Well, fine then," Winner said with a look of relief, his sunny smile in place again. "It's important to keep in touch with family, even adopted family."

"Trowie?" Yuy asked, but I settled that question with a stern look. It didn't hurt that I silently mouthed "Hee-Hee", Duo's pet name for him, which I had heard only once during the war.

The limo parked in the unloading zone of the condo complex owned and operated by the Winner Corporation.

"Why?" was on all of our lips.

"We own many properties," Winner explained, " especially around universities where we trade experts from the field with university researchers and need nice accommodations available on short notice. There are apartments, but if you are going to be here for four years, a condo is a better investment." Winner smiled. "And, Duo, I know you can afford the terms I can offer you."

"You know a lot about my finances," Duo said in his low "I'm getting testy" voice.

I noticed even Yuy ducked for cover, either that or he was checking out the electrical box at the security station. Probably that.

Or possibly not.

"I wouldn't be offering you a place you couldn't easily afford," Winner said airily.

Zechs nudged him. "Not to mention his ex-partner's information."

I don't think Winner had any intention of mentioning Hilde Schbeiker or her information, from the look on his face. I could feel Duo giving off sparks and nearly joined both Chang and Yuy off grilling the security officer.

Duo's eyes flickered, his lip curled and he growled. "Hilde told you how much she paid me off with? Damnit, don't I get any secrets or privacy?"

"Not when it comes to money. Your line of credit, taxes, your assets-- it is all an open book," Zechs said, "in the hands of an avid reader."

"To him!" Duo pointed at Winner. His hand flashing out so fast that if he'd had gun, Winner would have been a goner.

"Do you want to take a look at the place before you have a fit?" Winner snapped.

Duo looked at me and I nodded to him. I could see him compose himself as quickly as he'd been set off. "Wasn't a fit—just saying—"

And so we concluded our financial discussion and walked to the desk flanked by the ashen-faced security man and another employee, whose name badge proclaimed her title as the concierge.

"Hi, I'm Pam," she said to us automatically then turned slightly and said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Winner. I'm so honored by your personal visit."

Uh, huh. Scared shitless, more likely. She couldn't even choose between formal and informal introductions. Zechs looked amused, so I bet "caretaker training camp for the rich and famous" was in her future.

Winner was all business, moving things along with his effortless grace. Guess that's what breeding does for a person. "Thank you, Pam. Would you show us the available units I called about?"

Of course she would she'd be "thrilled". Pointing out the security station and postal storage along the way, we filled an elevator uncomfortably and flew upwards. Duo grinned. He loved speed.

She showed us a two bedroom, a three bedroom and a one bedroom, which were available. It was becoming one big blur to me. Duo liked the view and the price-tag of the one-bedroom. I couldn't tell you one defining thing about any of the rooms.

"If you'd like, I can show you the garage, storage facility and the gymnasium?" Pam, the concierge, offered.

Wufei perked up again. "Gym? Yes, show us that next," he demanded in a way that sounded as if he meant to add, "You should have begun with that, woman!"

No, it wasn't what he expected, Chang confided to me. I hadn't expected a thing so I just nodded, while he said, "Not a gold star establishment, but to have a laundry in your own house and a gym in the basement seems too good to be true."

I agreed, sorta. I would have agreed had I been cognizant of everything going on around me. Things were happening so fast. The university was huge. I had no idea how I'd fit into that ancient establishment. A house, condo, with Duo? One room, Two? I hadn't any money, big money, to contribute, so why should I even have any input?

My head was spinning with too many decisions. I just let Duo and Winner handle it all. I know that was rather stupid of me. I'd have nobody to blame but myself if I didn't like how things turned out, but then it was nice letting someone else take charge, someone I trusted, and I hadn't any choice. My brain simply refused to focus. I nodded and signed my name when asked, but otherwise I was too overwhelmed to say a thing.

On the ride back to Winner's estate, I realized I'd co-signed papers making Duo and me co-owners of a condo, a one bedroom with a view of the university I'd be attending in a matter of weeks. I was in a daze. Contented in an anxious way. Happy excited. About to collapse.

"Security needs an upgrade," Yuy was telling Winner when I tuned in. "I'll see to it. Passkeys should be reissued monthly and the garage is completely unprotected. A few surveillance cameras and another guard to start."

Go, Heero! How about electronic searches at the doors for weapons? Oops! I nearly said that aloud.

Chang rifled noisily through a backpack of pamphlets, brochures, and applications which he'd accumulated. He chose one that looked like a list of majors.

"How did you pick one?" he asked me.

"Duo did it."

"Hey, you made the final choice, buddy," Duo said. He tightened his arm over my shoulders. "I helped narrow the possibilities." I felt his smile against my cheek and a kiss to my prickly chin line.

That was true. If I blew it, it would be all my fault. "That's right."

Chang's eyes slid over to Duo, then Yuy then back to the listing. "Chinese culture or world history?"

"You can do both." That was Yuy's input. "If you want to do this," Yuy told him, barely about a whisper, "then do it."

I recognized that raw, exposed look on his face. Heero Yuy couldn't hide his feelings for the other man. Lucky Chang, indeed. He seems to have found, and exposed, a very supportive man under that cold bastard exterior. It appeared that Yuy totally believed in Chang's abilities.

Chang's face lit up at his words. "I think I might. I liked the condo idea as well. I'm throwing away money on rent and have nothing else to spend my money on."

The two exchanged nervous glances. Making life decisions in the company of four other people probably felt like a strange thing to do, I know, because I'd just done the same thing.

"I have money for a down payment," Yuy said. "I could put in for a transfer, if you get placed in a program."

Chang's eyes glittered. "That would work. We could afford the two bedroom condo—"

"Yes, I, ah, was thinking that too," Yuy broke in with an undisguised excited hitch in his voice. "If I worked, we could afford to share, um, like that. If you wanted."

"Of course."

I nearly laughed at Chang, who could hardly spit out how much he wanted to have the other man be a part of this new adventure. Nearly.

But then I got to thinking about my own arrangement and wondered if Duo had paid for our condo or had I contributed anything at all to it? What were our financial arrangements? Asking these questions was a good sign; it meant I was coming out of my semi-coma state. I hoped.

Talk moved on to other topics, including our love of piloting and the fate of our Gundams. Duo usually became glum when their destruction was mentioned; we all had been close to our alter egos, but I think he bonded especially close because it was the only thing he'd ever considered his, aside from his braid—oh, and that cross of his which he no longer wore, but kept in a pocket. But this time things were different.

"The Gundams!" he shouted. "They still exist."

"Absolutely not," Chang said, firm as granite.

"I'll show you when we get back," Duo assured us all, but he wouldn't give away any more of his secret.

The minute we got home Duo took off for our room. The rest of us stood around feeling stupid. "I don't know," I said again and again. I didn't know what Duo was talking about. I really wasn't an appendage to Duo. Really, guys!

"Okay, this'll be really cool; at least, I think so!" Duo yelled from the hallway, his boots pounding on the hardwood floors.

Winner winced either at the damage being done to the finish or because of the unconventional noise in his house.

Duo skidded to a stop and we circled around as he lifted the lid on a box which seemed familiar to me. Oh, yeah. I remembered what those were now; I'd just forgotten. Leave it to Duo to make the connections.

Inside were the toy-candy Gundams. Heavyarms and Deathscythe were on top because those were the last we'd looked at, but the next layer had Sandrock and Shenlong and the last held Tallgeese and Wing.

"No Zero," Winner noted with a touch of melancholy, maybe, or perhaps he was a stickler for complete sets.

"Um, there was but Tro' and I ate that one," Duo said.

No good had ever come of that Zero, until they made it a candy.

There was a murmur of "injustice" but mostly noises of the "good riddance" variety. I guess my quiet nature was quieter than usual, because after I noticed Winner and Zechs whispering together and sneaking peeks my way. Then Winner approached me.

"Trowa, can we talk a minute, alone?"

"Sure," I said, looking for Duo.

"Duo!" he shouted. "I'm borrowing Trowa for a minute!" Winner grabbed my arm. "This way, so we can talk."

"You've been very quiet today."

Just as I said, or didn't say. "I'm always quiet."

"But not confused-quiet, and I can understand. So much is happening at once. That can be terribly difficult. And I don't want to contribute to your problems or unhappiness. You know that, don't you?"

Um…

"I want you to think about all this. Look over the papers, feel free to talk about it, ask questions, even opt out of the commitment if you feel uncomfortable. I don't want you thinking I've rushed you into something that's wrong for you. Okay?"

Yeah. Suddenly I felt better. I gave him the shock of his life and hugged him. "Thanks."

We were both blushing roses when I released him.

"Did you know I had a little crush on you, when we first met?" he asked me.

Um…

I had had by share of infatuations with nearly any attractive male, too, but I wouldn't admit mine with Winner, not now.

"I knew I'd blown it big time after nearly killing you under the influence of that awful 'Zero' system."

Yep. "That put the kibosh on anything that might have been, yeah."

I was relieved when he laughed a big hearty laugh. He wiped at eyes to clear away a stray tear or two. "I felt so bad for Duo when Heero turned him down, but I'd been crushing on him, ah Duo, at the time, so I was hurt, as well. I was a mess emotionally."

Um, yeah… I'd had no idea Quatre was so fickle in his teen years. That alone made me feel better about my numerous lust-filled obsessions, especially since I'd narrowed them down to one, and that one had become the love of my life, whom I needed to talk to-- about much now.

When Quatre-- I had to call him Quatre and not Winner "now that we had rebuilt our friendship," as he put it—and I rejoined the others, it was Yuy and Chang who pounced on us, drawing Duo into the pow-wow.

"Just so you know--" Yuy began.

"We know you all were in cahoots!" Chang completed neatly.

Yuy dangled a bit of rope in my face. "You left it behind the first night. I know it's yours. I spent long enough at that circus of yours to recognize the kind of rope you used."

Um…

Chang displayed a nib of explosive, waving it in Duo's face. "I know Duo set the explosives. It's his signature tie off of the wire attached to the plastic."

"Heh, heh," Duo chuckled rubbing the back of his head. "I'm surprised that big a piece survived."

"It's not their fault!" Quatre cried out. Ah, the champion taking the blame. Way to step up!

"We know that," Yuy said.

"It had your fingerprints all over it," Chang said. "Early Japanese island tribal effigies mass produced in China for sale on EBAY. We know you love to shop there, Winner."

"It's just that—" he started to say.

"You've got a big heart, Quat," Duo said. "Hey, we aren't stupid, ignorant, stubborn kids any more. We're all making these huge life decisions. Sure we make mistakes. Even me!"

He got a chuckle from that remark.

"There's no wrong choices, just choices we gotta live with." Duo stopped and grinned.

Yuy sighed. There really wasn't anything left for him to say. Chang reached for his hand. "We would have worked things out without your 'help'."

Right as always to the last drop of sarcasm. C'mon, Chang, the help didn't hurt, did it?

"I'm so happy for you," Quatre cried out, this time subjecting Chang, and then Yuy, to one of his encompassing embraces.

They both deserved that indignity and I smiled.

Zechs, and I can say now that I consider him to be a real friend and a man worth my limited admiration, stepped forward to have put in his word. "From what I understand, you all have Duo Maxwell to thank. His coming out paved the way for all of you to come to terms with your sexual orientations. I, for one, thank him."

Nice bow. Very aristocratic. And this was followed by a rush of murmured 'thanks' to Duo and Quatre both. Very touching. Too much touching, normally, but as Quatre called for champagne, the whole touching thing was all right.

"Hey, Sweetlips."

I spun into Duo. He hadn't used that endearment for awhile, and even then he'd saved it for bedtime activities.

"Got your attention," Duo smiled.

"Yeah, you did, but you can do that easily." I let him draw me apart from the others, while drinks and glasses were being sorted out.

"Yeah?" His smile stretched wider. "Well, I just wanted to sound you out, about the condo and all. That happened pretty fast, didn't it?"

Maybe he was unsure, too? I nodded, not certain where he was taking this.

"Yeah, the place was cool," he went on, perfectly capable of holding up my side of the conversation when I couldn't, "but the whole process… so much change at once, you know?"

Uh, huh.

"I want this. I just want to know you are right there along with me, okay?"

Uh, huh. "Yeah."

His hands were on my shoulders. He'd pulled me closer so our foreheads touched. "Talk to me, Tro'. I want to be there for you, but right now I'm feeling like I'm doing this on my own, ya know, babe?"

"I'm sorry. It's been so much so fast." What if I failed? At everything? "I don't know if I can do the school part."

"You'll give it your best, I know, and if it's not the right thing for you, there's a dozen other majors you can switch to."

"It's just… so much." A lot to get my head around. "It was just the apartment and you and me. Now it's—" I was a loss for words, again.

"That's why I'm handling the house. I can do that for you, so you can concentrate on the school stuff, okay?"

And it was okay.

I felt a weight lifting off my shoulders. "Yeah."

That all made sense.

We were sharing the future, each taking on what we could. "Seems like I got the easy part."

He laughed. "You've never been in a classroom."

How had he known that?

"Good guess. I'm right, huh? Between being in a circus and with mercenaries, I couldn't figure how a school house could fit in."

I smiled and shook my head. "Not very well." I hadn't been in a school. Ever. That had been part of the hitch and just bringing it up really helped.

"So you'll have your hands full with school. You'll see. You'll be thinking my job, whatever it that turns out to be, is the easy road."

"I'm not convinced, but I'm feeling better," I told him.

"You can do this, Tro'. You can do _anything_ if you can train lions and pilot a Gundam and… put up with me."

"Not so hard that," I said, accepting a kiss and returning it with meaning. I wouldn't send him running by admitting I'd still be in that apartment, moldering on that satellite if he hadn't come along. Put up with him? I'd put up with him forever and be grateful for the honor.

"Here's your glass!" Quatre chortled, sticking champagne flutes in our hands. "Enjoy!

And, yeah, everything was all right. As the buzz from the alcohol restored my equanimity, I felt I had made the right decisions today; that Duo had made the right decisions and I'd gone along with them. I could accept my lot-in-life balanced with the joy of having the love of my life there reassuring me that the feeling was mutual.

The hard edges had worn off, and I felt pretty mellow. I'd made friends with the enemy, literally, and mended a friendship and possibly opened a door to another friendship or two, potentially, coming up on the horizon. I won't say all was going to be fine, because the minute you say that you know life makes a fool of you, but I was certainly feeling good about the future.

Yeah, my job here was done and it was time to go, dare I say it, to my new home.

The End

A/N: Thank you every one for the lovely reviews and encouragement. Is there more to this story? Yes. Look for "Just Ducky" in a few months. --KS


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